REPORT 


OF  THE 


Special 


Legislative  Committee 


on  Education 


As  Authorized  by 

Senate  Concurrent  Resolution  No.  21 

By  the  Forty-third  Session  of  the  Legislature 
of  California 


. 


REPORT 


OF  THE 


Special 
Legislative  Committee 


nri 

This  book  is  DUE  °n  last  datp  st;wnoH 


As  Authorized  by 

Senate  Concurrent  Resolution  No.  21 

By  the  Forty-third  Session  of  the  Legislature 
of  California 


CALIFORNIA   STATE   PRINTING   OFFICE 

J.    M.   CREMIN,   SUPERINTENDENT 

SACRAMENTO,    1920 


.  Y  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LIBRARY 

LOS   ANGELES,  CALIF. 

C  I  ^ 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  > , 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  REPORT,  BY  THE  COMMITTEE 5 

Chapter  I. 
STATE   EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION 11 

California  Development  Before  1913. — Recent  American  Practice  and  The- 
ory.— Powers  and  Duties  of  the  State  Board  of  Education. — Proper  Functions 
for  a  State  Board  of  Education. — The  California  Development  Since  1913. — 
Further  Lack  of  (iood  Educational  Organization. — Reasons  for  Such  Lack  of 
Educational  Organization. — Desirable  Educational  Reorganization  in  This 
State. — An  Adequate  State  Department  of  Education. — Principles  Underlying 
State  Educational  Control. — Summary  of  Findings  and  Recommendations. 

Chapter  II. 
COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION 32 

Early  California  Development. — Tendencies  in  Our  American  States. — The 
Situation  in  California. — A  Fundamental  Reorganization  Needed. — The  Con- 
solidation of  Schools. — A  County-Unit  Plan  of  Organization. — General  Con- 
trol.-— Business  and  Clerical  Control. — Educational  Control. — Function  of  the 
Superintendent  of  Schools. — Combination  of  Counties  or  Counties  and  Cities. — 
How  to  Institute  Such  a  Reorganization. — Summary  of  Findings  and  Rec- 
ommendations. 

Chapter  III. 
THE  PROBLEM  OF  TEACHER  TRAINING 53 

The  California  Development. — The  Recent  Crisis  in  Teacher-Training. — 
I 'ay  of  Normal  School  Instructors. — Recent  Studies  of  the  Problem. — Reasons 
and  Remedies. — The  Creation  of  Teachers  Colleges.— Normal  School  Control 
and  Development  in  California. — Ultimate  Teachers'  College  Control. — The 
Examination  and  Certification  of  Teachers. — Better  Plan  for  the  Certification 
of  Teachers  Needed. — Summary  of  Findings  and  Recommendations. 

Chapter  IV. 
HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE i!T 

Our  High  School  Development. — Special  Features  of  Our  High  School 
Development. — Secondary  School  Needs  for  the  Future. — Junior  College 
Development  in  California. — The  New  Interest  in  Higher  Education. — A  Pro- 
gram for  California  Development. — Advantages  of  Such  a  Plan. — Control  of 
Such  Development. — State  Aid  for  and  Support  of  Junior  College  Work. — 
Summary  of  Findings  and  Recommendations. 

Chapter  V. 
A  BETTER  EQUALIZATION  OF  FUNDS S4 

I.     Possible  County-Unit  Economies S4 

II.     Apportionment  of  the  Elementary  School  Fund Ml 

III.  Apportionment  of  High    School   Fund 90 

IV.  Summary  of  Findings  and  Recommendations 94 

Appendix. 

SUMMARY  OF  NEEDED  LEGISLATION 90 

I.     Constitutional  Amendments. 
II.     New  or  Revised  Laws. 


LIST  OF  CHARTS  AND  TABLES. 


I.  Charts  and  Maps. 

PAGE 

Fig.     1.     Index  Numbers  of  States  at  Four  Periods 8 

Fig.     2.     Map  :  How  Chief  State  School  Officer  is  Obtained 1C 

Fig.     3.     Chart :   The   Present  Double-Headed   State   Educational   Organization 

in  California IS 

Fig.     4.     Chart :  Showing  the  Present  Lack  of  Organization  and  Unified  Plan  in 

the  Handling  of  the  Educational  Functions  in  California 21 

Fig.     5.     Chart :   A   Reorganized  and   Unified   State  Department  of   Education 

for  this  State 25 

Fig.     6.     Map :  Administrative  Unit  for  Schools  Used  by  our  American  States —     35 
Fig.     7.     Chart:  Present  Triple-Headed  County  Educational  Organization  and 

Control  in  California £9 

Fig.     8.     Map :   Showing  San  Mateo  County  Before  Reorganization —  . —     42 

Fig.     9.     Map:  Showing  San  Mateo  County  After  Reorganization 43 

Fig.  10.     Map:   Showing  How  Chief  County  Educational  Officer  is  Secured  in 

Our  American  States 4(5 

Fig.  11.     Chart :  Proper  County-Unit  Educational  Organization 

Fig.  12.     Map :  Showing  Location  of  State  Normal  Schools  and  the  Percentage 

of  Trained  Teachers  in  the  Counties  of  California 54 

Fig.  13.     Map  :   Showing  High  School  Development  in  California  by  1920__      —     OS 
Fig.  14.     Chart :  Actual  and  Estimated  Growth  in  High  School  Enrollment  in 

California 70 

Fig.  15.     Chart :  Actual    and    Estimated    Future    Growth    of    the    Colleges    at 

Berkeley •. 75 

Fig.  16.     Chart :  Showing  Proposed  Reorganization  of  Our  School  System__  77 

II.  Statistical  Tables. 

Table  I.  Showing  the  Number  of  Small  Schools  in  each  County  in  the  Stat<'  :>7 

Table  II.  Increase  in  College  Enrollment 71 

Table  III.  Showing  Results  of  County-Reorganization  Studies  in  California--  SO 

Table  IV.  Showing  Relation  of  Teachers  Allowed  to  Teachers  Employed,  by 

Counties _ 88 

Table  V.  Apportionment  of  High  School  Funds,  Present  Plan !>J 

Table  VI.  Apportionment  of  High  School  Funds,  Revised    Plan__  !i.". 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  REPORT. 


To  the  Forty-fourth  Session  of  the 

Legislature  of  California. 

The  report  which  follows  is  the  report  of  the  Special  Legislative 
Committee  provided  for  by  Senate  Concurrent  Resolution  No.  21, 
approved  by  both  houses  of  the  Forty- third  session  (1919)  of  the 
Legislature  of  California,  and  which  read  as  follows : 

CHAPTER  49. 

Senate  Concurrent  Resolution  No.  21 — Relative  to  a  legislative  investigation  of  the 
problem  of  meeting  the  needs  of  and  furnishing  support  for  the  schools  and 
educational  institutions  of  the  state. 

[Filed  with  Secretary  of  State  April  26,  1919.] 

WHEREAS,  The  cost  of  maintenance  of  the  educational  system  of  this  state  forms 
the  greater  part  of  the  public  expense  and  is  increasing  year  by  year ;  and 

WHEREAS,  The  increased  attendance  at  elementary  schools  and  other  institutions 
of  learning  presents  to  the  people  of  the  state  a  constant  problem  of  increased 
support  and  ever  broadening  educational  demands  ;  and 

WHEREAS,  It  is  the  policy  of  this  state  that  schools  and  the  means  of  education 
shall  be  encouraged,  and  is  the  desire  of  the  citizens  to  afford  to  the  children  and 
young  people  of  the  state  educational  facilities  of  the  highest  order ;  and 

WHEREAS,  It  is  desirable  that  a  sound,  permanent  and  comprehensive  system  shall 
be  devised  and  established  by  which  the  schools  and  other  educational  institutions  of 
the  state  may  be  conducted ;  now,  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved  by  the  Senate,  the  Assembly  concurring,  That  three  members  of  the 
Senate  shall  be  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  Senate  and  three  members  of  the 
Assembly  by  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  who  shall  constitute  a  committee,  whose 
duty  it  shall  be  to  investigate  the  matters  contained  in  these  resolutions,  and  the 
plan  of  education  in  this  state  and  the  relations  of  schools,  high  schools,  junior 
colleges,  normal  schools,  technical  schools,  colleges  and  universities,  and  the  cost  of 
education,  and  to  report  their  findings  in  full  to  the  forty-fourth  session  of  the 
Legislature,  and  to  make  such  recommendations  in  connection  therewith  as  they 
deem  of  permanent  benefit  to  the  state ;  and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  the  Chief  of  the  Legislative  Counsel  Bureau  be  directed  to  act  as 
secretary  of  said  committee,  that  said  committee  shall  have  power  to  employ  such 
assistance  as  may  be  necessary  and  that  the  expenses  incurred  in  such  investigation, 
not  to  exceed  the  sum  of  three  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  shall  be  paid  equally 
by  the  Senate  and  the  Assembly  out  of  their  respective  contingent  funds. 

In  pursuance  of  the  above  resolution  the  President  of  the  Senate 
appointed : 

Senator  Herbert  C.  Jones,  of  San  Jose, 
Senator  William  J.  Carr,  of  Pasadena,  and 
Senator  M.  B.  Harris,  of  Fresno; 
and  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  appointed: 

Assemblywoman  Elizabeth  Hughes,  of  Oroville, 
Assemblyman  Walter  Eden,  of  Santa  Ana,  and 
Assemblyman  N.  J.  Prendergast,  of  San  Francisco.1 
These  comprised  the  membership  of  the  special  committee  provided 
for. 

This  Committee  met  and  organized  at  Sacramento,  at  which  meeting 


'Assemblyman  Prendergast  died  on  April  14,  1920,  took  part  in  but  three  hearings 
of  the  Commission,  and  had  no  part  in  the  formulation  of  the  final  report.  At 
the  hearings  which  he  attended  he  was  deeply  interested  in  the  work  of  the  Committee 
and  in  full  sympathy  with  the  findings  here  expressed. 


6  REPORT  OP  LEGISLATIVE  COMMITTEE  ON  EDUCATION. 

Senator  Jones  was  elected  Chairman,  and  afterwards  held  three  meetings 
in  Berkeley,  and  one  each  in  Los  Angeles,  Fresno,  Riverside  and  San 
Jose.  An  effort  was  made  at  the  hearings  to  secure  the  attendance  of 
representatives  of  taxpayers'  associations,  labor  unions,  and  laymen, 
as  well  as  those  directly  interested  in  public  education.  During  the 
earlier  portion  of  its  work  it  was  aided  by  Mr.  Arthur  P.  Will,  Chief 
of  the  Legislative  Counsel  Bureau,  who  acted  as  secretary  until  he  left 
the  service  of  the  state,  and  throughout  its  work  it  has  been  materially 
assisted  by  the  helpful  cooperation  and  wise  counsel  of  the  State 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  Mr.  Will  C.  Wood.  In  the 
preparation  of  the  final  report  the  Committee  has  availed  itself  of  the 
assistance  of  Professor  Ellwood  P.  Cubberley,  Dean  of  the  School  of 
Education  at  Stanford  University,  who  has  taken  the  findings  and 
conclusions  of  the  Committee  and  drafted  this  Final  Report.  Many 
others,  too  numerous  to  mention  here,  have  given  assistance  to  the 
committee  by  appearing  at  its  hearings,  and  some  have  submitted  writ- 
ten statements  for  its  information  and  guidance.  To  all  of  these  here- 
unmentioned  friends  of  education  the  Committee  herewith  extends  its 
sincere  thanks. 

DELIMITATION   OF  INVESTIGATION. 

From  its  first  organization  the  Committee  felt  that  it  could  not 
attempt  an  exhaustive  survey  of  the  educational  needs  and  resources 
of  the  state.  This  would  require  time,  money,  expert  assistance,  and 
a  degree  of  professional  ability  which  were  beyond  the  resources  of 
the  Committee.  It  was  felt,  too,  that  the  resolution  creating  the  special 
committee  did  not  intend  that  it  should  deal  with  any  such  highly 
professional  questions  as  curricula  or  the  nature  of  the  instruction 
provided,  but  rather  that  it  was  intended  that  the  Committee  should 
consider  only  the  larger  features  of  our  administrative  organization, 
with  a  view  to  making  recommendations  for  the  strengthening  and 
more  economical  and  effective  operation  of  the  state's  educational 
system.  It  was  also  felt  by  the  Committee  that  any  recommendations 
which  might  be  made  by  it  ought  to  deal  with  principles  of  action  and 
reasons .  therefor  rather  than  with  legislative  details,  and  that  the 
Committee  should  offer  a  constructive  program  for  improvement  which 
might  be  worked  out  over  a  period  of  perhaps  the  coming  decade, 
rather  than  one  so  limited  in  character  that  it  could  all  be  accomplished 
at  a  single  session  of  the  Legislature. 

The  Committee  has  also  felt,  more  and  more  as  it  worked  along,  that 
in  dealing  with  a  state  school  system  that  has  had  such  a  steady  and 
consistent  development  from  its  beginnings,  any  recommendations  made 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  REPORT.  7 

should  be  in  harmony  with  the  nature  and  direction  of  the  historical 
development  which  has  taken  place  during  the  nearly  three-quarters  of 
a  century  oi'  our  state's  history,  as  well  as  also  be  in  harmony  with  the 
best  American  experience  in  state  educational  organization  and  admin- 
istration. Accordingly,  your  Committee  has  familiarized  itself  with 
the  more  important  steps  in  the  evolution  of  the  California  state  school 
system,  and  in  framing  its  report  has  tried  to  so  shape  its  recom- 
mendations that  what  it  proposes  for  the  future  will  be  but  a  further 
and  a  natural  development  of  what  has  already  been  evolved.  To  a 
similar  purpose  the  Committee  has  studied,  briefly,  the  more  important 
lines  of  recent  educational  evolution  elsewhere,  with  a  view  to  utilizing 
in  this  state  the  best  educational  experience  and  practice  worked  out 
in  other  states. 

With  the  above  guiding  principles  in  mind,  the  Committee  finally 
settled  upon  five  main  topics  upon  which  to  concentrate  its  hearings, 
and  upon  which  it  would  formulate  its  report  and  recommendations, 
and  these  form  the  subject  matter  of  the  five  chapters  which  follow. 
They  are: 

1.  The   present   state    educational    organization,    and   the   need   for 
certain  changes  that  will  give  this  state  a  sound,  comprehensive,  and 
more  modern  and  more  effective  state  educational  organization. 

2.  The  present  form  of  combined  district  and  county  educational 
organization,  the  weak  points  in  this  organization,  and  the  changes 
needed  to  produce  an  efficient,  effective,  and  economical  administration 
of  our  town  and  rural  schools  and  the  educational  business  of  our 
counties. 

3.  The  state's  educational  needs  in  teacher  training,  both  before  and 
after  the  teacher  begins  teaching,  and  the  desirability  of  providing  a 
more  rational  system  for  the  certification  of  teachers  in  this  state. 

4.  The  need  for  a  better  organization  and   administration  of  our 
secondary  schools,  and  a  more  general  extension  upward  of  the  higher 
education  provided  by  the  state  through  the  organization  of  a  system 
of  regional  junior  colleges,  and  their  organization  and  control. 

5.  Problems  relating  to  the  cost  of  education,  and  the  possibility  of 
a  further  equalization  of  the  advantages  and  the  burdens  of  education 
without  increasing  materially  the  costs. 

OUR   CALIFORNIA   DEVELOPMENT. 

Admitted  to  the  Union,  in  1850,  as  the  thirty-first  state,  the  develop- 
ment of  California  in  people  and  resources  was  relatively  slow  for  almost 
halt  a  century.  Early  conceiving  of  education  as  an  important  function 
and  duty  of  the  state,  and  early  establishing  the  principle  that  the 
wealth  of  the  whole  state  should  be  called  upon  to  educate  the  children 
of  /the  state,  California  has  for  long  held  a  position  of  importance  and 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


1890 


1900 


1910 


1918 


D.  C.  48.63 
Mass.  45.86 
Cal.  43  79 
N.  Y.  4052 
R.  I.  39.27 
Conn.  38.90 
Colo.  37.83 
N.  J.  37.49 
Mont.36..°,4 
Penn.  34.70 
Nev  34.47 
Md.  33.30 
Ohio  33.09 
Ariz.  32.75 
111.  31 87 
Mich.  31.86 
Wis,  30.99 
Iowa  30.% 
N.  H.  30.95 
Wash.  30.80 
Kans.  30.64 
VVyo.  30.27 
Vt.  30.22 
Maine  29 .88 
Ind.  29.82 
Minn.  29.45 
Del.  2930 
Utah  28.64 
Fla.  28.52 
Ore.  27.91 
Neb.  2643 
8.  D.  2606 
Mo.  25.54 
N.  D.  25.48 
Ky.  23.39 
Texas  23.23 
Idaho  22.81 
Va.  22.25 
Miss.  21.88 
W.Va.21.82 
Tenn.  21.01 
Ark.  2007 
La.  18.40 
Ala.  18.16 
N.  C.  17.80 
Ga.  15.73 
S.  C.  12.46- 
N.  M.  10.02' 


Mass.  49.52 
N.  Y.  46.57  v 


/Mont.  75  79 
^-Cal.  7121 
Ariz.  66  19 
N  J  65.93 
D  C.  64  24 
Wash.  63.67 
Iowa  61.85 
Utah  61.39 
Mass.  61.04 
Mich.  60.43 
Conn.  59.77 
Ohio  59.72 
N  Y  5935 
Colo.  5923 
N.  D  59 17 
Nev  59  05 
Ind  58  80 
Idaho  58.57 
Minn.  58.43 
Ore  57.81 
Penn  57.65 
Neb  57.14 
Hawaii57  07 
ID  56  75 
Wyo  56.71 
R  I.  56.33 
Kans.  55.16 
C  Z  55.11 
S  D  55.03 
N  H  5437 
N  M.  53  01 
Vt.  51.51 
Wis.  51.34 
Mo.  49.64 
Maine47.36 
OkJa.  44.44 
Md.  43.22 
Del.  42.48 
Texas  41. 12 
Fla.  37.77 
W.Va.  37.73 
P.  R.  35.79 
Va.  35.26 
Tenn.  35.14 
Ky.  34.98 
La.  33.86 
Ga.  32.60 
<^--N.  C.  30.59 
s\Ala.  30.58 
s\Ark.  30.28 
Miss.  30.04 

S.C.   29.39 
FIG.  l.     INDEX  NUMBERS  OF  STATES  AT  FOUR  PERIODS. 

(Reproduced   by   permission,   from   Leonard   P.    Ayers'   An   Index  Number   {or   State 

School  Systems,  p.  43.) 

The  1918  Index  Number  for  California  was  made  up  of  the  following  Items  and  Scores: 

Score     Rank 


D.  C.  44  90 
Cal.  43.80 
Conn.  43.13 
R.  I.  43.05 
Nev.  42.37 
Colo.  41.59 
N.  J.  40.26 
Mont.  39.51 
Utah  37.51 
Ohio  37.34 
IU.  37.18 
Wash.  37. 14 
Penn.  36.97 
Ind.  36.33 
Neb.  36.11 
Mich.  35.60 
Md.  35.49 
Vt.  35.44 
Minn.  35.41 
N.  D.  34.83 
Iowa  34.49 
Wis.  34.31 
S  D.  33.99 
N.  H.  33.82 
Maine  33.70 
Ore.  32.04 
Wyo.  31.91 
Mo.  31.65 
Kans.  31.54 
Ariz.  30.17 
Del.  30.10 
Idaho  29.25 
W.Va.27.07 
Ky.  25.23 
N.M.  24.86 
Texas  24.43 
Okla.  23.27 
Fla.  22.45 

^.Tenn.  22.23 
\Va.  21.69 

La.  21.55 

Ga.  21.54 
Ark.  20.99 
Miss.  20.89 

«^—  S.  C.   20.75 

sNAla.  19.50 
^N.  C.  17.51 


Wash.  61. 21 
Cal.  60.44 
D.  C.  56.33 
Mass.  56.32 
Nev.  56.01 
N.  J.  54.47 
Mont.  53.50 
N.  Y.  51.87 
Utah  50.92 
R.  I.  50.84 
IU.  49.86' 
Conn.  49.31 
Colo.  49.23 
Ohio  48.68 
Ore.  47.81 
Penn.  47.25  • 
Ind;  45.957- 
Ariz.  45.54  I* 
Mich.  45  19 
Idaho  44.57 
Minn.  44. 51 
Neb.  43.99 
Wis.  4323 
Kans.  43.06 
Wyo.  4259 
S.  D.  42  57 
N.  D.  4248' 
N.  H  42.47 
Vt.  42  1 1 
Iowa.  41  45 
Maine  39  68 
Mo.  38.80 
Md.  38  47 
Del.  38.09 
OkJa.  3597 
W.Va.  32.87 
Texas  32.34 
N.M.  31.05 
La.  30.94 
Ky.  30.44 
Va.  29.70 
Fla.  29.69 
Tenn.  29.49 
Ga.  29.12 
Ala.  26.93 
Ark.  26.70 
Miss.  26.39 
N.  C.  25.71 
S.  C.  24.87 


1.  T 'or  per  cent  of  school  population  attending  school  daily 70.85 

2.  For  average  days  attended  by  each  child  of  school  age 61.10 

3.  For  average  number  of  days  tin-  schools  were  kept  open 86.00 

4.  For  per  cent  of  total  attendance  in  the  high  schools 58.79 

5.  For  per  cent  of  boys  In  total  high  school  attendance 77.82 

6.  For  average  annual  expenditure  per  child  attending  school 79.41 

7.  For  average  annual  expenditure  per  child  of  school  age 56.26 

8.  For  average  annual  expenditure  per  teacher  employed 72.04 

9.  For  expenditure  per  pupil  for  other  than  salaries 61.76 

10.  For  expenditure  per  teacher  for  salary  only 88.06 


Average  Score  or  Index  Number 71.25 


4th 

3d 
13th 

1st 
14th 

4th 

2d 

2d 
16th 

1st 

2d 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  REPORT. 

leadership  among  the  states  in  the  matter  of  public  education.  In 
many  important  features  of  its  school  system  California  has  been  first 
or  among  the  first  of  the  states  to  make  such  provision. .  Especially  in 
the  matter  of  school  finance  has  California  been  a  leader,  no  state  having 
done  more  to  equalize  the  burdens  for  maintenance  and  to  extend  the 
advantages  of  education  throughout  the  state.  In  a  recent  ranking  of 
the  different  American  states  and  territories,  based  on  ten  items  relat- 
ing to  attendance,  length  of  term,  high  school  advantages,  teachers' 
salaries,  and  total  annual  and  per  capita  expenditures,1  California  was 
shown  to  have  for  long  held  a  high  position  among  the  states.  Based 
on  the  ten  items  used,  five  of  which  were  financial,  an  index  number 
for  each  of  the  forty-eight  states,  Porto  Rico,  Hawaii,  the  Canal  Zone, 
and  the  District  of  Columbia  was  worked  out,  and  these  index  numbers, 
with  the  relative  positions  and  changes  in  position,  are  shown,  for  the 
four  periods  studied,  in  the  chart  on  the  opposite  page.  With  the 
adoption  of  Constitutional  Amendment  No.  16,  at  the  recent  general 
election,  which  materially  increases  both  the  state  and  county  support 
for  both  elementary  and  high  schools,  California  has  stepped  forward  to 
a  new  position  of  importance  in  educational  finance,  and  undoubtedly 
would  occupy  first  place  among  the  states  on  a  similar  table  constructed 
for  1921. 

Within  the  past  two  decades  California  has  experienced  a  very 
remarkable  development,  and  the  future  of  the  state  seems  especially 
bright.  In  one  aspect  of  our  future  educational  development,  though, 
the  problem  has  become  complicated  and  difficult,  and  promises  to 
become  more  difficult  with  time.  The  development  of  California  in 
population  is  not  primarily  by  the  increase  of  people  of  native  English 
speech  or  Anglo-Saxon  ideas  as  to  law,  government,  sanitation,  or  the 
promotion  of  the  public  welfare.  On  the  contrary,  California  stands 
well  toward  the  top  of  the  states  having  high  percentages  of  the  foreign 
born  among  its  population,  and  very  high  in  the  percentage  of  the 
foreign  born  coming  from  Spain,  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily,  the  Balkans, 
parts  of  Asia  Minor,  and  the  Orient.  Of  all  our  immigrants  these 
peoples  are  furthest  removed  in  governmental  conceptions  from  those 
for  which  our  government  stands,  and  the  problem  of  assimilating 
these  peoples  into  our  state  and  national  life  is  a  difficult  one,  and  one 
that  must  be  accomplished  largely  through  education.  .  There  is  every 
reason,  too,  in  our  climate,  agriculture,  horticulture  and  industries  why 
Mediterranean  and  Oriental  peoples  should  want  to  come  to  California, 
and  large  numbers  of  these  peoples  are  today  settled  in  the  rural 
districts,  where  our  educational  system  is  wreakest. 

Charged  as  the  Legislature  is  by  the  Constitution  of  the  state  to 

'The  ten  items  are  given  on  page  8,  beneath  the  chart  showing  state  Index 
Numbers. 


10  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON    EDUCATION. 

''encourage  by  all  suitable  means  the  promotion  of  intellectual,  scien- 
tific, moral,  and  agricultural  improvement,"  it  is  important  that  it  see 
that  the  state 's^  educational  system  be  as  sound  in  organization,  compre- 
hensive in  scope,  and  effective  in  results  as  the  highest  needs  of  a  state 
of  such  large  future  demands.  The  financial  structure  of  the  California 
school  system  is  and  for  long  has  been  good ;  the  important  needs  of  the 
state's  school  system  have  seemed  to  your  Committee  to  be  rather  along 
the  lines  of  better  administrative  organization,  the  provision  of  a  much 
better  type  of  schools  for  rural  people,  the  establishment  of  Junior 
Colleges,  and  the  further  extension  of  certain  parts  of  the  public  school 
system.  It  will  be  the  purpose  of  this  report,  in  the  chapters  which 
follow,  to  set  forth  these  needs  as  the  Committee  came  to  see  them, 
and  the  recommendations  it  was  led  to  formulate. 

Respectfully  submitted. 

WILLIAM  J.  CARR, 

M.  B.  HARRIS, 

ELIZABETH  HUGHES, 

WALTER  EDEN, 

HERBERT  C.  JONES,  Chairman; 

Committee. 
Final  report  approved  December  14,  1920. 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  11 

CHAPTER  I. 

STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 

CALIFORNIA   DEVELOPMENT   BEFORE   1913. 

The  first  Constitution  of  California  provided  for  the  election,  by  the 
people,  of  a  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  for  a  term  of 
three  years.  In  1863  the  Constitution  was  amended  to  provide  for  four- 
year  terms,  and  this  provision  has  ever  since  remained.  In  the  first 
real  school  law,  enacted  in  1852,  the  main  outlines  of  the  present  state 
school  system,  modeled  largely  after  conditions  then  existing  in  the 
state  of  New  York,  were  laid  down.  An  ex  officio  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion also  was  early  created  by  law,  largely  to  look  after  the  school  lands 
given  the  state  by  Congress,  and  in  1860  the  power  to  select  textbooks 
was  given  this  board  also.  Ex  officio  county  superintendents  of  schools  ^ 
also  were  provided  for  by  designating  the  county  treasurers  to  so  act, 
and  in  1855  the  office  of  Comity  Superintendent  of  Schools  was  also  cre- 
ated, the  superintendent  to  be  elected  also  by  popular  vote.  The  law  of 
1852,  as  well  as  an  earlier  law  of  1851.  provided  for  the  subdivision  of  the  ' 
counties  into  school  districts  and  the  election  of  three  trustees  for  each, 
and  in  1855  city  school  organization,  with  city  boards  of  education  and 
city  superintendents  of  schools,  also  was  added.  In  1860  a  State  Board 
of  Examination  was  provided  for,  to  examine  teachers  and  to  grant 
teachers'  certificates:  in  1862  the  first  state  normal  school  was  created: 
in  1863  state  aid  for  teachers'  institutes  was  begun;  in  1867  the  "rate 
bill,"  a  tax  on  the  parents  of  children  attending  the  schools,  was 
abolished  and  the  schools  were  made  free;  and  in  1869  the  State  Uni- 
versity was  established  to  crown  the  state's  educational  system. 

In  1879  a  new  and  quite  reactionary  State  Constitution  was  adopted 
which  abolished  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  the  State  Board 
of  Examiners,  and  decentralized  the  school  system  then  developing  by 
establishing  enmity  boards  of  education  and  giving  to  them  the  power 
to  adopt  textbooks  and  to  examine  and  certificate  teachers  previously 
possessed  by  the  State  Board  of  Education.  Five  years  later,  however, 
the  Constitution  was  amended  by  vote  of  the  people,  the  State  Board 
of  Education  was  recreated,  and  power  was  given  it  to  prepare  and 
edit  and  publish  a  state  series  of  textbooks  for  the  schools  of  the  stale. 
The  board  thus  created  was  an  ex  officio  body,  composed  entirely  of  state 
school  officials.1  This  board  in  time  not  proving  satisfactory,  the  people 

'It  consisted  of  the  following  iniblk-  officials  and  school  officers,  ex  officio:  The 
Governor,  the  Superintendent  of  Public?  Instruction,  the  President  and  Professor  of 
Education  in  the  State  University,  and  the  presidents  of  all  state  normal  schools  in 
this  state. 


12  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

in  1912  abolished  it  by  further  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  and 
directed  the  Legislature  to  provide  by  law  for  the  creation  of  a  new 
State  Board  of  Education,  and  with  power  to  do  this  in  any  manner 
that  the  Legislature  might  deem  wise.  This  the  Legislature  did  in  1913, 
and  the  plan  then  adopted  has  not  been  changed  since. 

RECENT  AMERICAN  PRACTICE  AND  THEORY? 

While  no  uniform  plan  for  state  educational  organization  has  as  yet 
been  evolved,  and  a  number  of  different  plans  are  in  use  in  the 
different  states,  certain  tendencies  nevertheless,  as  an  outgrowth  of 
experience,  have  become  clearly  manifest  during  the  past  ten  to  fifteen 
years.  Summarizing  these  it  may  be  said  that  the  best  American 
experience  and  theory  today  indicate  that  a  State  Board  of  Education 
should  be  constituted  about  as  follows: 

1.  It  should  be  composed  of  not  less  than  five  nor  more  than  nine  mem- 
bers, with  seven  as  the  most  desirable  number,  and  with  terms  of  service 
so  distributed  that  only  one  member  should  go  out  of  office  each  year. 
It  is  not  regarded  as  desirable  that  any  Governor  should  have  power 
to  completely  change  the  composition  of  the  board  during  one  term 
in  office. 

2.  The  board  should  be  composed  of  laymen,  should  represent  the 
public  interest,  and  should  have  in  its  membership  no  ex  officio  members. 

3.  The  members  should  be  appointed  by  the  Governor,  and  in  making 
the  appointments  he  should  be  free  from  all  restrictions  as  to  residence, 
party  affiliation,  race,  religion,  or  sex.     The  Governor  should  also  fill 
vacancies,  for  the  unexpired  term,  and  should  have  power  to  remove 
any  member  for  immorality,  malfeasance  in  office,  incompetency,  or 
continued  neglect  of  duty. 

4.  No  salary  should  be  attached  to  membership,  but  necessary  travel- 
ling expenses  and  a  small  per  diem,  or  a  small  annual  honorarium, 
should  be  paid  each  member. 

The  present  State  Board  of  Education  for  California  (§  1517  of  the 
Political  Code)  meets  these  requirements  in  all  particulars  except  as  to 
length  of  term,  the  California  Constitution  prohibiting  a  longer  appoint- 
ment than  for  four  years.  It  would  be  well  if  the  term  of  all  members 
could  be  extended  to  seven  years. 

POWERS  AND  DUTIES  OF  THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION. 

It  was  the  evident  intent  of  the  law  of  1913,  creating  the  present 
State  Board  of  Education,  and  strengthened  by  subsequent  legislation, 
to  create  for  California  a  State  Board  of  Education  which  should  in  time 
evolve  into  a  real  board  for  the  administrative  control  of  the  educational 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  13 

service  maintained  by  this  state.  The  constitutionally  older  Superin- 
tendent of  Public  Instruction  was  directed  by  the  law  to  act  as  secretary 
and  chief  executive  officer  for  the  board;  the  board  was  given  power 
to  appoint  three  assistant  superintendents  who  should  be  known  as 
commissioners ;  power  was  given  the  board  to  make  rules  and  regulations 
not  inconsistent  with  law  for  the  government  of  the  schools  of  the 
state;  it  was  empowered  to  study  the  educational  needs  of  the  state, 
and  to  propose  plans  for  improving  the  school  system ;  it  was  authorized 
to  conduct  investigations,  employ  additional  educational  and  business 
experts  to  assist  it,  within  the  limits  of  its  appropriations;  the  power 
of  the  old  state  board  to  issue  teaching  credentials  and  life  diplomas 
was  confirmed  and  extended ;  it  was  authorized  to  create  a  committee  on 
credentials  to  pass  on  the  cases  of  applicants ;  the  old  power  to  compile, 
or  adopt,  and  to  order  printed  the  text  books  for  the  schools  of  the 
state  was  continued  to  ityit  has  been  given  authority  to  standardize 
the  normal  schools  of  the  state,  and  prescribe  the  standards  of  admis- 
sion and  graduation  therefrom;  it  has  been  given  similar  power  to 
approve  all  courses  of  study  for  the  high  schools  and  junior  colleges 
of  the  state;  the  administration  of  the  retirement  fund  for  teachers 
has  been  placed  in  its  hands ;  and  the  organization  and  administration 
of  a  program  for  physical  education  in  the  schools  has  been  assigned 
to  it. 

The  Legislature  of  this  state,  in  conformity  with  an  act  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  has  further  materially  increased  the 
powers  and  the  importance  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  by  designat- 
ing it  as  the  official  state  body  to  administer  the  funds  granted  to  this 
state  by  Congress  for  vocational  education,  under  the  Smith-Hughes 
law  of  1917,  and  also,  still  more  recently  Congress  has  designated  it 
to  control  the  funds  granted  to  this  state  for  the  reeducation  of  persons 
crippled  in  industry.  The  Smith-Towner  bill,  now  before  Congress, 
providing  for  rather  1  literal  aid  to  the  states  for  specific  forms  of  public 
education  and  teacher  training,2  proposes  to  still  further  increase  the 
importance  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  by  making  it  the  agent 
of  the  Federal  Government  in  expending  all  aid  to  be  granted  to  the 
state. 

It  is  evident  then  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  Legislature  of  1913, 
and  still  further  emphasized  by  subsequent  legislation,  to  create  for 

2The  Smith-Towner  bill,  now  before  Congress,  while  leaving  all  educational  control 
to  the  different  states,  provides  for  the  granting  of  $100,000,000  annually  to  the 
states,  for  the  following  purposes : 

$7,500,000  for  the  removal  of  illiteracy; 
$7,500,000  for  Americanization  work;  " 
$20,000,000  for  work     in  physical  education; 
$15,000,000  for  the  preparation  of  teachers;  and 

$50,000,000  for  the  equalization  of  educational  opportunities  and  aid  in  the  pay- 
ment of  the  salaries  of  teachers. 


14  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

California  a  state  board  of  control,  after  the  best  American  models, 
for  the  educational  system  supported  by  the  state.  This  intent  has  been 
given  still  further  emphasis  by  the  acts  of  Congress.  Still  more,  the 
wisdom  shown  by  the  new  State  Board  of  Education  in  the  execution 
of  the  functions  entrusted  to  it  has  awakened  confidence  that  the  state 
has  finally  obtained  an  important  coordinating  and  directive  agency 
which  is  capable  of  much  further  expansion,  that  it  may  render  still 
larger  service  in  the  future. 

PROPER    FUNCTIONS   FOR   A   STATE   BOARD   OF    EDUCATION. 

What  has  taken  place  in  California  has  also  taken  place  in  a  number 
of  other  American  states,  during  the  past  ten  to  fifteen  years.  Old  and 
ex  officio  State  Boards  of  Education  have  been  abolished,  and  new  State 
Beards  of  Education  have  been  created  in  their  stead.  The  Smith- 
Hughes  Act  of  1917  virtually  required  a  State  Board  of  Education  of 
some  type  in  every  state.  In  addition  to  acting  as  agents  of  the  Federal 
Government  in  the  administration  of  federal  funds,  granted  as  aid  to 
the  states,  these  new  State  Boards  of  Education  have  been  entrusted  by 
the  legislatures  creating  them  with  new  powers,  naturally  differing 
somewhat  in  the  different  states.  Though  probably  no  two  boards  have 
exactly  the  same  powers  and  duties,  and  an  examination  of  this  recent 
legislation  gives  evidence  that  we  are  still  in  a  period  of  experiment, 
nevertheless  certain  tendencies  are  evident  and  the  probable  direction 
of  state  school  control  is  each  year  becoming  more  and  more  clear. 
Briefly  these  tendencies  may  be  summarized,  as  follows : — 

1.  The  creation  of  a  Department  of  Education  in  the  state  government 
which  shall  exercise,  through  an  appointed  State  Board  of  Education, 
supervisory   oversight   and   control   over  the   entire  system   of   public 
instruction  supported  by  the  state. 

2.  The  abolition  of  the  elective  office  of  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction,  which  represents  an  earlier  stage  in  our  educational  evolu- 
tion, and  the  substitution  therefor  of  an  appointed  Commissioner  of 
Education,  to  be  appointed  by  and  responsible  to  the  State  Board  of 
Education,  and  who  shall  act  as  the  chief  executive  officer  of  the  board 
and  its  representative  before  the  people.  The  Commissioner  of  Education 
thus  becomes  somewhat  analagous  to  a  superintendent  of  city  schools 
in  a  large  city,  chosen  by  and  responsible  to  a  city  board  of  education. 

3.  In  the  selection  of  such  a  Commissioner  of  Education  the  St;it<- 
'Board  of  Education  should  be  free  from  restrictions  as  to  politics,  sex. 

and  residence,  and  should  be  able  to  fix  the  salary  and  determine  the 
tenure.    Under  the  same  conditions  the  board  should  appoint  as  many 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  15 


Assistant  Commissioners  as  may  be  provided  for  by  law,  to  act  as 
of  the  different  divisions  of  the  state  educational  department. 

4.  The  State  Board  of  Education  should  have  power  to  determine. 
subject  to  legislative  regulation,  the  educational  policies  to  be  pursued 
in  the  state,  and  to  have  power  to  inspect,  require  reports  from,  and 
to  coordinate  the  educational  work  of  the  different  educational  institu- 
tions supported  by  the  state,  and  with  a  view  to  securing  economy  of 
operation,  efficient  educational  administration,  and  a  sound,  compre- 
hensive, and  well-coordinated  state  system  of  schools. 

5.  The  State  Board  of  Education  should  exercise  regulatory  control 
over  all  institutions  engaged  in  the  training  of  teachers;  control  the 
examination,   certification,  and  retirement  of  teachers;   supervise  the 
educational  work  done  in  all  charitable,  penal,  and  reformatory  institu- 
tions maintained  by  the  state;  direct  the  program  for  physical  training 
and  health  work  in  the  schools:   exercise  a  supervisory  control  over 
school  buildings,    see    that    sanitary    conditions  are  maintained,  and 
that  new  buildings  conform  to  proper  standards;  see  that  the  educa- 
tional laws  of  the  state  are  enforced,  and  the  educational  rights  of 
children    protected;    and    conduct    investigations    as   to   the    progress 
and  needs  of  the  schools  of  the  state,  and  report  the  results  and  their 
recommendations  to  the  Legislature. 

6.  The  State  Board  of  Education  should  be  the  body,  subject  to  direc- 
tion by  the  Legislature,  to  determine  questions  of  policy  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  school  system,  pass  011  new  proposals,  and  vote  official 
instructions,  but  all  execution  of  such  decisions  and  the  taking  of  action 
in  the  name  of  the  state  to  be  done  by  and  through  its  executive  officers, 
that  is.  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education  and  his  assistants,  or  other 
persons  instructed  to  act  in  the  name  of  the  board. 

7.  In  a  few  states  the  state  library  has  been  conceived  of  as  a  part 
of  the  state's  educational  service  and  placed  under  the  control  of  the 
State   Board  of  Education,  and  as  a  division  of  the  State  Education 
Department,  and  the  county  libraries  have  been  placed  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  county  boards  of  education  ;  in  a  few  other  states  the  manage- 
ment  and   investment  of  the  permanent  state  school  fund  has  been 
placed  under  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

What  is  outlined  above  is  perhaps  best  found  in  the  state  educational 
organizations  of  New  York.  New  Jersey,  and  Indiana,  though  a  number 
of  other  states  have  recently  conferred  upon  their  State  Boards  of 
Education  somewhat  analagous  powers.  Within  the  past  fifteen  years, 
too,  and  as  a  part  of  the  same  tendency  to  create  an  effective  and 
rational  state  educational  organization,  a  number  of  states  have  changed 


16' 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL,  ORGANIZATION.  17 

from  an  elective  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  to  an  appointed 
Commissioner  of  Education.  The  map  opposite  shows  where  the  chief 
educational  officer  of  the  state  is  elected  by  popular  vote,  and  where 
he  is  appointed.  It  will  be  seen,  from  the  map,  that  the  change  has 
been  most  common  in  those  eastern  and  northern  states  of  rather  dense 
population  and  containing  a  large  foreign  element,  while  the  less  densely 
populated  and  more  native  agricultural  states  to  the  west  and  south 
have  not  as  yet  felt  the  necessity  for  educational  reorganization.  In  a 
few  states,  such  as  Wyoming  and  Idaho,  where  constitutional  provisions 
have  been  hard  to  change,  a  Commissioner  of  Education  has  been 
created,  to  be  appointed  by  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  to  act 
as  its  executive  officer,  while  retaining  the  older  elected  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction  for  the  clerical  and  statistical  duties.  Such  an 
organization,  while  at  times  necessary,  nevertheless  is  fraught  with 
possibilities  for  discord  and  friction. 

THE  CALIFORNIA    DEVELOPMENT   SINCE   1913. 

\Vlien  we  turn  to  California  we  find  that,  since  1913,  a  partial  evolu- 
tion in  the  direction  of  good  educational  organization  has  been  taking 
place.  What  has  been  done  since  the  abolition  of  the  old  ex  officio. 
State  Board  of  Education,  in  1912,  measured  by  good  standards  as 
established  by  American  state  action,  has  been  in  the  right  direction, 
so  far  as  it  has  gone.  The  next  eight  to  ten  years  should  see  a  much 
further  development  in  the  same  general  direction,  so  that  California 
too,  a  decade  from  now,  may  have  evolved  a  State  Department  of  Educa- 
tion that  will  be  capable  of  rendering  large  educational  service  amid 
the  new  educational  conditions  that  we  shall  by  that  time  be  called  upon 
to  face,  and  the  new  educational  problems  that  we  shall  by  then  be  called 
upon  to  solve. 

The  present  stage  in  our  California  state  educational  development  is 
well  shown  in  the  chart  on  page  eighteen.  As  in  a  number  of  other 
states  which  have  experienced  a  recent  development  toward  a  rational 
form  of  state  educational  organization,  and  where  constitutional  provi- 
sions requiring  an  elected  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
stood  in  the  way  of  a  complete  and  adequate  reorganization,  wo  find 
in  California  also  a  double-headed  form  of  state  educational  organiza- 
tion. To  the  older  office  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  certain 
rarlier  functions  of  a  supervisory  and  clerical  and  statistical  nature 
,'i'c  given  by  lawr,  while  to  the  newer  State  Board  of  Education  a  num- 
ber of  new  functions  relating  to  policy  ami  educational  control  have 
been  given,  and  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  has  been 
directed  to  act  as  its  executive  officer  and  secretary.  So  long  as  the 

2—7769 


18 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    OOMM1TTEK   ON    EDUCATION. 


PATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  1!' 

present  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  remains  in  office,  and  so 
long  as  the  State  Board  of  Education  continues  to  pursue  its  present 
policy,  harmonious  relations  between  the  two  divisions  of  our  state 
department  are  likely  to  continue,  but  the  situation  nevertheless  is 
fraught  with  danger  and  sooner  or  later  is  destined  to  cause  trouble. 
It  will  be  seen  from  the  chart  that  that  part  of  the  state  educational 
organization  represented  by  the  State  Board  of  Education  is  clearly 
responsible  to  the  Governor  and  the  Legislature  for  its  acts,  while  that 
part  represented  by  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  remains 
independent  of  both  State  Board  of  Education  and  Governor,  and 
largely  independent  of  the  Legislature  as  well,  and  may  work  with  the 
State  Board  of  Education  or  against  it,  according  to  the  character  of 
the  official  elected  to  the  office  of  Superintendent. 

Only  a  policy  of  friendly  cooperation  between  the  State  Board  of 
Education  and  the  Superintendent,  or,  where  this  is  not  possible,  a 
policy  of  inactivity  or  resignation  on  the  part  of  either  the  State  Board 
or  the  Superintendent  can  prevent  friction,  to  the  disadvantage  of 
the  school  system,  with  the  state  school  office  organized  as  it  now 
is  in  this  state.  The  temptation  of  a  weak  State  Superintendent  to 
play  politics  against  the  State  Board  of  Education,  and  seek  for  cheap 
public  notoriety  to  secure  reelection,  wi  iild  be  both  passible  and  natural. 
Over  such  a  Superintendent  the  State  Board  could  exercise  no  control 
whatever. 

Still  more,  an  antagonized  or  antagonistic  Superintendent  might  at 
some  time  raise  the  constitutional  question  as  to  the  right  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education  to  do  anything  whatever  in  the  nature  of  supervi- 
sion, claiming  that  it  has  no  power  other  than  regulatory  power.  In  sup- 
port of  this  he  could  claim  that  the  superintending  function,  in  its  very 
nature,  is  an  integral  and  indivisible  function — that  there  cannot  be  two 
superintending  agencies.  The  Legislature,  in  a  way.  recognized  this  in 
organizing  the  State  Board  of  Education  in  1913,  when  it  provided 
that  the  three  Commissioners  should  rank  as  Assistant  Superintendents 
of  Public  Instruction,  and  that  their  work  should  be  directed  by  the 
Superintendent,  under  such  general  regulations  as  the  State  Board  of 
Education  might  adopt.  The  supreme  courts  of  North  Dakota  and 
Wyoming  have  held  that  since  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion is  a  constitutional  officer  whose  powers  are  implied  generally  in  his 
title,  it  is  not  competent  for  the  Legislature  to  assign  these  powers  to 
any  other  officer  or  commission. 

That  the  Superintendency  is  a  key  position,  and  that  an  obdurate 
Superintendent  could  almost  completely  check  the  work  of  the  State 


20  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

Board  of  Education  except  in  regulation  and  investigation,  should  not 
be  lost  sight  of.  Undoubtedly,  then,  the  present  California  educational 
organization  must  be  regarded  as  temporary  and  transitional,  and  dan- 
gerous for  the  future,  and  it  should  be  superseded  at  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity by  a  more  rational  form  of  state  educational  organization.  Such 
a  form  will  be  proposed  a  little  further  on. 

FURTHER  LACK  OF  GOOD  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 

The  chart  given  on  page  18,  reveals  but  a  part  of  the  lack  of  rational 
educational  organization  in  this  state.  Examining  further  into  the  plans 
now  employed  for  the  organization  and  control  of  what  the  state  has 
so  far  assumed  as  its  educational  functions,  we  get  the  next  chart,  given 
on  the  opposite  page.  This  shows  the  many  different  educational  func- 
tions and  institutions  which  this  state  has  up  to  now  assumed  and  is  in 
whole  or  in  part  supporting,  and  at  the  same  time  reveals  the  number 
of  more  or  less  unrelated  boards,  commissions,  and  other  agencies  having 
charge  of  some  part  of  the  educational  work  of  the  state.  Briefly,  these 
unrelated  agencies  may  be  summarized  as  follows : — 

1.  The   Common  Schools.     Under  the  general  control  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education  and  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction. 

2.  The   State    University.      This   institution,   unlike   in   most   other 
states,  is  not  included  as  a  part  of  the  public  school  system,  but  exists 
separate  and  apart.     It  has  no  legally-conferred  power  to  in  any  way 
control  the  public  schools,  though  it  has  in  the  past  exercised  large 
control  over  the  high  schools.    Conversely  the  public  school  authorities 
have  no  power  to  control  any  function  of  the  university.    The  only  legal 
connection  existing  at  present  between  it  and  the  public  school  system 
lies  in  that  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  is  ex  officio  a 
member  of  the  Board  of  Regents  for  the  University. 

3.  The  State  Normal  Schools.     Seven  normal  schools  are  maintained 
by  the  state.     They  are  a  part  of  the  public  school  system.     Each  is 
under  the  control  of   a  Board   of   five   Trustees,   appointed  by  the 
Governor,  with  the  Governor  and  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion members  ex  officio.     In  financial  matters  they  are  subject  to  the 
State  Board  of  Control,  and  in  most  educational  matters  to  the  State 
Board  of  Education. 

4.  California   Polytechnic    School.     Located    at    San    Luis    Obispo. 
Under  the  control  of  a  Board  of  Trustees,  organized  in  a  manner  similar 
to  a  normal  school  board.    The  State  Board  of  Education  has  no  power 
to  direct  its  work,  or  to  bring  it  into  any  close  relation  to  the  state 
school  system. 

5.  Schools  for  Juvenile  Delinquents.     These  are  located  at  Whittier, 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 


21 


i 

J  2 


22  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

lone,  and  Ventura.  Each  has  a  Board  of  Trustees,  appointed  by  the 
Governor.  The  state  educational  offices  have  no  relation  to  the  work  of 
these  schools. 

6.  Schools  for  Adult  Delinquents.     Schools  for  prisoners  are  main- 
tained in  the  state  prisons  at  San  Quentin  and  Folsom.     The  schools 
are  under  the  control  of  the  prison  boards.     The  state  educational 
offices  have  no  relation  to  these  schools. 

7.  Schools  for  Atypical  Children.     The  Sonoma  State  Home,  at  Glen 
Ellen,     is     managed     by     a    board     of    trustees,    ^and    the     Pacific 
Colony,   now  being  established   near  Pomona,   is  under  a  Board   of 
three    Trustees,    appointed   by   the    Governor.      The   State   Board   of 
Charities  and  Corrections  exercises  some  oversight  of  these  two  insti- 
tutions, but  the  state  educational  offices  have  no  relations  with  eith  •/. 

8.  State  School  for  the  Deaf  and  Blind.     This  is  located  at  Berkeley, 
is  managed  by  a  Board  of  five  Trustees  appointed  by  the  Governor, 
and  bears  no  relation  to  the  state  educational  offices. 

9.  Home  for  the  Adult  Blind.    There  is  also  a  Home  for  the  Educa- 
tion of  the  Adult  Blind  at  Oakland,  also  not  related  to  the  state  educa- 
tional system. 

10.  State  Nautical  School.     Authorized  by  the  Legislature  of  1917. 
and  to  be  established  at  San  Francisco,  in  cooperation  with  the  Fed- 
eral Government.    The  Governor,  President  of  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, and  the  President  of  the  San  Francisco  Board  of  Harbor  Com- 
missioners were  to  constitute  the  Board  of  Trustees  for  its  manage- 
ment.    The  school  has  not  as  yet  been  opened,  due  to  the  failure  of 
the  national  government  to  supply  a  vessel  for  it. 

11.  Immigrant  Education.     The  act  creating  the  State  Commission 
on  Immigration  and  Housing  authorizes  that  Commission  to  cooperate 
with  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  in  the  education  of  immi- 
grants and  their  children.    The  plan  worked  out  is  one  under  which  the 
Superintendent  deputizes  an  agent  of  the  Commission  to  serve  as  an 
Assistant  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  and  to  have  charge  of 
the  work.    This  gives  the  Superintendent  some  supervision  over  it. 

12.  Reeducation  of  Cripples.     The  Legislature  of  1919  set  aside  cer- 
tain funds  for  the  Industrial  Accident  Commission  to  use  for  the 
reeducation  of  persons  crippled  in  industry.     The  state  educational 
offices,  under  the  law,  have  no  relation  to  the  work.    The  last  Federal 
Congress,  however,  passed  an  act  appropriating  a  considerable  sum  of 
money,  to  be  apportioned  to  the  states  for  the  same  purpose,  on  condi- 
tion that  the  states  duplicate  the  amount  and  put  the  management 
of  the  expenditure  under  the  State  Boards  of  Education.  The  California 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  23 

allotment  is  about  $20,000.     A  reorganization  of  this  work  will  need 
to  be  made  if  California  is  not  to  lose  its  share. 

13.  Education  and  Care  of  Orphans.     This  work  is  under  private  aus- 
pices,  subject  to  inspection  by  the   State   Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction.     To  these   institutions   the  state  has  just  voted  to  give 
exemption  from  local  taxation.     Both  the  Board  of  Control  and  the 

tate  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections  also  look  after  this  work,  in 
part,  but  not  from  the  standpoint  of  education. 

14.  The  State  Library.     This  institution  does  an  important  educa- 
tional work  for  adults,  including  adult  blind,  but  also  is  unrelated  to 

he  state  educational  offices. 
Counting  up,  there  are  twenty-three  boards  and  commissions,  all  quite 

nrelated  or  but  loosely  related  to  one  another,  which  exercise  control 
over  some  portion  of  the  educational  work  of  the  state.  In  few  states 
in  the  Union  would  a  greater  decentralization  of  control  be  found.  That 
the  assignment  in  California  has  been  haphazard,  and  made  without 
any  guiding  educational  principle,  is  evident.  The  whole  represents 
a  gradual  growth  without  a  unifying  plan,  and  is  not  based  on  any 
administrative  principle.  Such  a  haphazard  organization  will  inevi-' 
tably  be  uneconomical  in  administration  and  inefficient  in  action. 

REASON  FOR  SUCH  LACK  OF  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 

The  reason  for  such  a  lack  of  any  rational  organization  in  the  educa- 
tional work  of  the  state  is  not  hard  to  find.  Up  to  very  recently  the 
principle  of  decentralization  has  been  a  fundamental  guiding  principle 
in  our  democratic  form  of  government,  The  Constitution  of  1879  gave 
special  emphasis  to  this  idea.  The  old  State  Board  of  Education,  too, 
«ras  composed  of  busy  school  men,  and  hardly  able  to  organize  an 
educational  department  or  take  on  any  additional  educational  functions. 
Neither  was  the  state  educational  office  able  to  act  efficiently.  The 
result  was  that,  before  1913,  whenever  the  need  for  the  discharge  of  a 
new  educational  function  arose,  the  work  was  assigned  to  some  other 
board  or  commission,  or  a  new  body  to  take  charge  of  it  was  created. 
The  result  is  that  today  we  find  the  educational  "work  supported  by  the 
state  scattered,  in  its  supervision  and  control,  among  twenty-three 
boards  or  commissions,  with  a  membership  of  about  one  hundred  and 
sixty  persons,  and  these  acting  with  little  relation  to  one  another. 

DESIRABLE    EDUCATIONAL   REORGANIZATION    IN   THIS  STATE. 

To  harmonize  ^nd  make  more  effective  the  work  of  the  different  edu- 
cational institutions  supported  in  whole  or  in  part  by  this  state,  to 
bring  them  into  a  properly  coordinated  and  comprehensive  whole,  to 


24  REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

reduce  the  number  of  persons  at  work  on  the  educational  problem,  to 
promote  efficiency  and  economy  in  our  educational  service,  and  to  create 
for  California  a  sound  and  intelligent  educational  administration  for 
all  parts  of  the  .public  school  system,  the  Committee  feels  that  there 
should  be  created  a  comprehensive  and  unified  State  Department  of 
Education,  through  which  the  educational  control  to  be  exercised  by  the 
state  should  be  discharged.  The  present  double-headed  state  educa- 
tional control  should  be  unified,  the  different  educational  functions  of 
the  state  given  their  proper  place  in  a  logical  State  Department  of 
Education,  and  this  Department  should  also  be  so  broadly  conceived 
and  so  framed  that  every  new  educational  function  hereafter  developed 
may  be  assigned  naturally  to  it  for  purposes  of  supervisory  control,  and 
may  find  in  it  its  natural  place.  To  this  new  Department  educational 
functions  now  being  exercised  elsewhere  should  gradually  be  reassigned. 
While  preserving  the  principles  of  democratic  government,  it  should 
be  frankly  recognized  that  efficiency  and  economy  can  only  be  secured 
by  an  organization  which  recognizes  the  importance  of  expert  profes- 
sional service,  in  which  there  is  proper  responsibility  for  the  use  of 
authority,  through  which  related  functions  are  brought  together  for 
administrative  control,  and  by  means  of  which  the  interests  of  the 
state  in  education  can  be  promoted  intelligently  and  effectively. 

To  this  end  the  Committee  recommends  that  the  Legislature  propose 
a  constitutional  amendment  to  the  people,  to  take  the  place  of  the 
present  section  2  of  article  IX  of  the  Constitution,  which  requires  the 
election  by  the  qualified  electors  of  the  state  of  a  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction  at  each  gubernatorial  election,  and  the  substitution 
therefor  of  a  new  section  2  to  read  substantially  as  follows : 

Sec.  2.  The  Legislature  shall  provide  for  the  appointment,  by  the 
State  Board  of  Education,  of  a  Commissioner  of  Education,  who  shall 
act  as  the  chief  executive  officer  of  said  board  and  shall  execute,  under 
its  direction,  all  educational  policies  decided  upon. 

Once  such  a  constitutional  change  has  been  effected  it  will  then  be 
possible  for  the  legislature  to  create,  under  the  headship  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education,  a  State  Department  of  Education  capable  of  prop- 
erly coordinating  the  different  parts  of  the  state's  educational  service, 
insuring  harmonious  relations  in  all  its  parts,  and  rendering  large  serv- 
ice to  the  schools  of  the  state.  In  the  meantime  the  Legislature  can 
proceed  with  the  creation  of  a  State  Department  of  Education,  but 
there  will  always  be  danger  of  serious  friction  until  such  a  constitutional 
change  gives  authority  for  a  proper  relationship  of  all  its  parts. 
AN  ADEQUATE  STATE  DEPARTMENT  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  type  of  reorganization  the  Committee  has  in  mind  for  ultimate 
development  in  California  is  shown  in  the  diagram  on  the  opposite  page. 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 


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26'  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

Such  a  department  is  perhaps  today  best  represented  by  the  State 
Department  of  Education  in  New  York,  though  a  number  of  other 
states  have  partial  departments  which  embody  the  general  idea  and 
portions  of  the  plan  shown  herewith.  It  will  be  seen  from  the  drawing 
that  the  people  of  the  state,  acting  through  an  elected  Governor  and 
Legislature,  would  appoint  the  members  and  control  the  policy  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education.  The  Governor  appoints  the  members,  and 
the  Legislature  enacts  the  laws  under  which  the  Board  works.  The  chief 
executive  officer  of  the  Board  is  the  appointed  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion. On  his  recommendation,  and  as  provided  for  bv  the  Legislature, 
the  Board  would  appoint  Assistant  Commissioners  or  heads  of  divisions, 
and  these  would  have  charge,  under  the  general  direction  of  the  Com- 
missioner and  the  Board,  of  such  divisions  within  the  Department  as 
the  Legislature  may  from  time  to  time  create  and  add. 

The  divisions  that  might  properly  be  found  in  a  well- developed  State 
Department  of  Education,  and  the  proper  work  for  each  division,  may 
be  summarized  here.  The  divisions  which  are  already,  more  or  less 
clearly,  in  existence  in  the  present  double-headed  California  state  organ- 
ization are  indicated  by  prefixing  an  *. 

*1.  Business  Division.  The  head  of  this  division  should  act  as  Secre- 
tary and  Business  Manager  for  the  State  Board  of  Education,  and  the 
other  divisions  of  the  Department;  keep  all  books  and  records;  m;ikr 
all  purchases  and  pay  all  bills;  apportion  the  school  funds;  and  per- 
form such  other  duties  as  the  State  Board  may  direct. 

*2.  Publication,  Information,  and  Statistical  Division.  This  division 
should  collect  and  tabulate  all  statistical  matter;  prepare  and  issue  all 
blanks,  forms,  and  registers;  prepare  the  biennial  report,  and  other 
publications ;  answer  inquiries  from  the  public ;  prescribe  uniform  forms 
for  bookkeeping  and  returns;  supply  the  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Education  and  other  governmental  officials  and  departments  with 
requested  data ;  and  prepare  and  issue  the  annual  statistical  portions  of 
the  educational  reports. 

3.  Legal  Division.  This  division  has  rendered  such  valuable  service 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  by  providing  a  simple,  inexpensive,  and  expe- 
ditious method  of  interpreting  the  meaning  of  the  school  law  and  set- 
tling disputes  under  it,  that  it  is  recommended  for  establishment  in 
this  state.  At  its  head  would  be  an  attorney  versed  in  school  law,  who 
would  edit  and  publish  the  school  law,  advise  the  Legislature  as  to 
legislation,  and,  through  a  series  of  numbered  decisions,  each  to  be 
approved  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  interpret  the  meaning  and 
intent  of  the  school  law.  The  decisions  of  the  State  Department  of 
Education  would  expedite  the  public  business  and  greatly  cheapen  pro- 


= 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  27 

cedure  by  freeing  the  courts  of  most  of  the  school  litigation  which  now 
finds  its  way  there. 

4.  Research  Division.     The  work  of  such  a  division  has  been  well 
developed  in  Wisconsin,  and  in  a  few  other  states.     The  department 
should  act  as  a  center  for  the  dissemination  of  educational  information 

d  the  answering  of  inquiries  from  the  public ;  and  should  be  a  center 
for  the  supply  or  sale  of  educational  tests  and  scales  and  the  exchange 
of  results  with  all  parts  of  the  state.  This  would  create  an  investigation 
bureau  for  the  schools  of  the  state,  with  a  view  to  improving  and  advis- 
ing as  to  instruction,  analogous  to  the  bureaus  which  our  leading  city 
school  systems  now  maintain. 

5.  Tcacha'-'irainnuj  Division.     This  division  should  exercise  super- 
visory oversight  and  control  of  the  work  done  in  the  training  of  teachers 

all  institutions  within  the  state;  study  conditions  and  advances  made 

other  states ;  advise  the  State  Board  of  Education  as  to  actions  to  be 
taken ;  and  direct  the  after-training  of  teachers  in  service  through  the 
reading  circle  work  recommended  in  chapter  III.  For  a  time  at  least, 
this  division  could  be  combined  with  6. 

*6.  Examining,  Certificating  and  Pensioning  Division.  This  division 
should  have  charge  of  all  examinations  for  the  certification  of  teachers, 
which  ought  to  be  made  a  state  function  and  made  uniform  through- 
out the  state ;  the  granting  of  certificates,  or  at  least  the  credentials  upon 
which  certificates  are  granted;  the  recording  of  the  service  of  teachers 
within  the  state :  and  the  handling  of  all  matters  relating  to  pensions 
granted  to  teachers  on  retirement  from  service.  Except  in  a  large 
department  this  division  could  be  combined  with  5,  above. 

7.  Buildings  and  Sanitation  Division.  This  division  should  study  the 
needs  and  suggest  plans  for  improving  schoolhouse  construction  and 
sanitation  in  this  state:  and  prepare  sets  of  plans  for  different  types 
of  school  buildings,  which  would  be  loaned,  without  charge,  to  the  school 
corporations  of  this  state.  All  plans  for  new  school  buildings,  outside 
of  cities,  should  be  approved  by  it.  It  should  also  assist  counties  in 
making  sanitary  surveys  of  school  buildings.  This  division  could  be 
made  into  quite  a  money-saver  for  the  state. 

*8.  Vocational  Education  Division.  This  division  should  cover  the 
work  in  *agricultural  education,  *home  economics,  trade  and  industry, 
and  commerce;  would  act  as  agent  of  the  Federal  Government  for 
work  in  this  state  under  the  Smith-Hughes  law;  and  should  also  be 
given  supervisory  oversight  of,  the  work  in  the  California  Polytechnic 
School  and  the  State  Nautical  School.  The  Rehabilitation  division  (12) 
described  on  the  following  page  might  also  be  made  a  part  of  this 
division.  This  would  be  a  large  and,  for  this  state,  a  very  important 
division. 


28  REPORT   OP   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

*9.  Secondary  Education  Division.  In  addition  to  the  work  now 
done  by  this  branch  of  the  present  department  in  visiting  and  super- 
vising the  work  of  the  high  schools  of  this  state,  this  division  should 
take  over  from  the  University  of  California,  as  recommended  in  Chapter 
IV,  the  inspection  and  accrediting  of  all  high  schools,  and  should  also 
exercise  supervisory  oversight  over  both  the  junior  high  schools  (inter- 
mediate schools)  and  the  junior  colleges  as  these  are  established  in  this 
state. 

*10.  Elementary  Education  Division.  This  division  should  study 
the  problems,  administration,  and  needs  of  the  kindergartens  and  day 
and  evening  elementary  schools,  both  rural  and  graded,  of  this  state, 
with  a  view  to  improving  both  their  administration  and  instruction. 

11.  Special  Education  Division.     This  division  should  exercise  super- 
visory oversight  over,  and  study  with  a  view  to  improving,  the  education 
provided  for  the  blind,  deaf  and  dumb,  feeble  minded  and  mentally 
defective,  the  truant  and  incorrigible,  and  dependent  and  delinquent 
children.     To  this  end  it  should  be  given  supervisory  oversight  of  all 
educational  work  done  in  the  charitable,  penal,  and  reformatory  insti- 
tutions and  orphan  asylums  supported  in  whole  or  in  part  by  the  state, 
and  should  maintain  an  *experimental  laboratory   (now  in  existence 
at  the  Whittier  State  School)  for  the  measurement  and  proper  classi- 
fication of  all  children  sent  to  such  institutions. 

12.  Rehabilitation  Division.     This  division  should  take  over  the  work 
provided  for  by  the  Legislature  of  1919,  in  the  reeducation  of  persons 
crippled  in  industry,  and  become  the  agent  of  the  Federal  Government 
in  such  work  in  this  state   (see  pp.  22  and  23).     The  education  of 
crippled  children  would  also  come  under  this  supervisory  oversight.   In 
this  state  the  work  of  this  division  could  be  well  carried  on  under  the 
Vocational  Education  division  (8),  described  on  the  preceding  page. 

13.  Adult  Education  Division.     This  division  should  have  charge  of 
the  work  in  immigrant  education,  the  work  in  Americanization,  and 
adult  education  generally.     Combined  with  it,  for  a  time  at  least,  should 
be  the  state  work  in  visual  education,  which  means  a  bureau  for  supply- 
ing the  schools  and  libraries  of  the  state  with  charts,  maps,  lantern  slides, 
and  films  of  an  educational  nature,   and  which,  by  reason  of  their 
expense,  individual  school  systems  should  seldom  purchase.    In  the  state 
of.  New  York  this  has  been  erected  into  an  important  special  division. 

*14.  Health  and  Physical-Welfare  Division.  This  division  should 
have  oversight  of  the  state's  program  for  physical  education  and  health 
work  in  the  schools;  should  conduct  health  and  child- welfare  surveys; 
should  stimulate  and  guide  the  instruction  in  health  and  physical 
training  in  the  schools;  and  should  make  studies  as  to  the  health, 
physical  welfare,  nutrition,  and  abnormalities  of  school  children. 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  29 

15.  Art  and  Music  Division.     This  division  should  study  the  needs 
of  the  state  in  pure  and  applied  art  and  in  music,  with  a  view  to 
improving   the   instruction   in   pure   and   applied   art   and   in  music, 
elevating  the   artistic   and  musical  tastes  of  our  people,   and  better 
preparing  the  workers  for  the  applied-art  needs  of  the  industries.     For 
more  than  half  a  century  the  state  of  Massachusetts  has  supervised  and 
aided    such    instruction,    and    with    large    economic    returns    in    her 
industries. 

16.  Library  Division.     In  some  of  our  states,  notably  New  York,  the 
state  library  has  been  classified  as  a  division  of  the  State  Department 
of  Education,  and  the  county  libraries  in  other  states  have  been  closely 
connected  with  the  county  educational  administration.     This  seems  to 
be  the  logical  place  for  such  service,  as  it  is  essentially  educational. 
The  work  of  the  State  Library  in  this  state  is  so  good  that  there  is  no 
present  need  for  such  a  reclassification,  but  the  Committee  feels  that 
the  county  library  work  would  be  much  better  provided  for  if  placed 
under  the  type  of  county  educational  organization,  described  in  Chapter 
II,  than  under  the  boards  of  supervisors  as  at  present. 

The  present  double-headed  State  Department  of  Education  has,  under 
the  control  of  one  side  or  the  other  of  its  organization,  divisions  num- 
bered above  as  1,  2,  6,  8,  9,  10,  and  14.  Division  11  is  already  in 
existence  at  the  Whittier  State  School.  The  work  of  division  13  has 
been  begun  under  the  direction  of  the  State  Commission  on  Immigra- 
tion and  Housing.  Division  16  exists  under  a  separate  board.  Other 
divisions  could  be  organized  by  a  mere  rearrangement  of  work,  and 
without  increase  of  cost.  The  department  is  thus  capable  of  expansion, 
as  needed,  and  as  the  Legislature  may  see  fit  from  time  to  time  to 
direct.  Such  a  department,  when  fully  organized,  would  net  be  ex- 
pensive, and  would  be  of  value  clearly  beyond  its  cost. 

PRINCIPLES    UNDERLYING   STATE   EDUCATIONAL   CONTROL. 

The  prime  purpose  of  such  an  educational  organization  is  the  creation 
of  a  State  Department  of  Education  along  the  lines  of  our  best  admin- 
istrative experience,  one  analagous  in  authority  to  our  more  recent 
creations  in  other  branches  of  the  state  service,  and  one  having  under  it 
a  sufficient  number  of  trained  workers  to  be  able  to  carry  out,  over  a 
considerable  period  of  time,  a  wise,  intelligent,  and  constructive  state 
educational  policy,  based  on  a  careful  study  of  conditions  and  needs 
and  the  best  of  administrative  experience.  The  proper  solution  of 
state  educational  problems  requires  careful  study  and  years  of  wise 
educational  direction,  and  this  the  state  can  supply  better  than  can  its 
subordinate  educational  units. 

In  all  such  matters  as  types  of  schools  which  must  be  maintained, 
length  of  school  term,  the  education  and  certification  of  teachers,  the 


30  REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

standards  for  the  supervision  of  instruction,  building  and  sanitary 
standards,  forms  and  rates  of  taxation,  terms  for  compulsion  to  attend, 
child-protection  laws,  standards  for  education  in  rural  communities, 
types  of  vocational  education  and  guidance  that  must  be  provided,  and 
the  provision  of  education  for  defectives  and  delinquents,  it  is  essen- 
tially the  business  of  the  state  to  set  the  minimum  standards  which  it 
will  permit  schools  to  provide.  It  is  also  the  business  of  the  state  to 
study  the  changing  conditions  within  the  state,  and  the  educational 
needs  of  the  state,  and  from  time  to  time  to  advance  the  minimum 
standards  which  it  will  permit.  To  do  this  intelligently  the  Legislature, 
acting  for  the  state,  needs  advice  based  on  careful  study  of  conditions 
and  needs,  and  this  it  should  be  the  business  of  such  a  State  Department 
of  Education  to  supply.  The  state,  too,  on  the  administrative  side, 
should  become  an  active,  energetic  agent,  working  constantly  for  the 
improvement  of  educational  conditions  throughout  the  state.  For  such 
service,  and  to  control  the  many  new  educational  undertakings  which 
modern  states  must  provide,  a  well  organized  and  efficient  State 
Department  of  Education  is  an  essential.  Such  a  Department  as  has 
been  outlined  above  will  render  a  service  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
cost  for  its  maintenance. 

SUMMARY   OF   FINDINGS  AND   RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In    summary    form,    the    findings    and    recommendations    of    the 
Committee  are  as  follows : 

1.  State    educational    legislation    in    California    has    moved    rather 
regularly  toward  the  creation  of  an  effective  form  of  state  educational 
control,  and  rapidly  since  1913. 

2.  The  evolution  since  1913  has  been  good,  and  in  the  right  direction, 
as  measured  by  the  best  American  educational  practice. 

3.  The  best  American  experience  and  theory  points  to  the  desirability 
of  a  unified  educational  oversight  for  all  educational  functions  assumed 
by  the  state,  exercised  through  a  properly  organized  State  Department 
of  Education. 

4.  The  present  state  school  administrative  organization  in  California 
is   double-headed,    and   contains-  elements   that    could    easily    produce 
discord  and  destroy  its  efficiency. 

5.  The  present  administrative  organization  should  be  unified  by  the 
abolition    of   the    elected    office    of    State    Superintendent    of   Public 
Instruction,  which  will  require  a  constitutional  amendment,  and  the 
substitution  therefor  of  an  appojnted  Commissioner  of  Education  to  be 
appointed  by  and  responsible  to  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

6.  The  present  educational  organization  in  California  is  haphazard, 
and  should  be  unified  under  a  State  Department  of  Education,  with 


STATE  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 


31 


such  divisions  as  the  Legislature  may  from  time  to  time  create.  A 
rather  full  type  of  state  department  is  sketched,  to  show  how  such  a 
department  should  be  organized  and  what  it  ought  ultimately  to 
evolve  into. 

7.  A  consideration  of  the  best  principles  of  state  educational  control 
would  indicate   that  such   a  department  should   study   carefully  the 
changing  educational  needs  of  the  state,  advise  and  guide  the  subor- 
dinate educational  divisions  and  institutions  of  the  state,  and  advise 
the  Legislature  as  to  legislation  that  will  establish  desirable  minimum 
standards  and  improve  education  throughout  the  state. 

8.  Such  an  evolution  probably  will  be  the  work  of  a  decade,  but  it 
epresents  a  desirable  form  of  organization  towards  which  the  state 
hould  move  as  rapidly  as  can  be  done. 


32  REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  II. 

COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 

EARLY  CALIFORNIA  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  first  school  laws  enacted  after  the  admission  of  California  into 
the  Union  laid  the  foundations  of  our  present  form  of  county  educa- 
tional organization.  The  first  law,  in  1851,  provided  for  the  subdivision 
of  the  counties  into  school  districts,  after  the  then  Massachusetts-New 
York  form  of  organization,  with  district  boards  of  three  school  trustees 
for  each.  These  were  to  be  elected  by  the  people,  and  to  have  control  of 
the  school  affairs  of  the  districts.  They  were  given  power  to  build 
school  houses,  to  examine  and  certify  teachers,  to  appoint  them  to  office, 
and  to  pay  them  from  the  income  from  the  state  school  funds  and  from 
tuition  fees.  In  1852  a  district  school  tax  was  authorized,  to  supple- 
ment such  funds,  and  the  beginnings  of  county  supervision  were  made 
by  ordering  the  county  treasurers  to  act,  ex  oflicio,  as  county  superin- 
tendents of  schools  to  supervise  expenditures.  The  law  of  1855  went 
a  step  further  by  providing  for  the  election  of  regular  county  superin- 
tendents of  schools,  by  popular  vote,  and  gave  to  them  the  general 
supervision  of  the  schools  of  the  districts  and  the  apportionment  of 
funds,  and  also  provided  for  separate  city  organization  under  city 
boards  of.  education  and  city  superintendents  of  schools.  In  1860  the 
county  superintendents  were  authorized  to  appoint  county  boards  of 
examination,  to  supercede  the  district  trustees  in  the  examination  and 
certification  of  teachers,  while  the  selection  of  textbooks  was  transferred 
from  the  districts  to  the  state  and  given  to  the  State  Board  of 
Education. 

Thus  were  laid  the  foundations  of  the  California  plan  of  combined 
district  and  county  school  control,  with  some  state  oversight,  which 
has  continued  ever  since.  The  Massachusetts-New  York  district 
system,  then  in  use  in  all  eastern  states,  was  adopted  that  schools  might 
be  organized  where  needed  and  wanted,  and  over  this  a  Middle- Western 
form  of  rudimentary  county  educational  organization  was  superim- 
posed, with  a  view  to  coordinating  district  control  and  regulating 
expenditures.  There  was,  for  a  time,  some  tendency  to  try  the  town- 
ship form  of  organization,  then  just  adopted  to  displace  the  district 
system  in  Indiana,  but  this  was  early  abandoned  as  being  unsuited  to 
the  conditions  and  needs  of  so  sparsely  settled  a  state.  This  general 
form  of  combined  district-county  educational  organization  has  ever 
since  continued,  though  with  a  slowly  growing  tendency,  as  the  defects 
of  the  district  system  have  become  more  and  more  evident,  to  transfer 


COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  33 

powers  and  duties  from  the  district  trustees  to  the  county  and  state 
educational  authorities,  that  increased  efficiency  and  better  educational 
organization  may  be  secured. 

The  Constitution  of  1879  strengthened  county  educational  organiza- 
tion by  abolishing  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  State  Board  of 
Examiners,  and  giving  to  county  and  city  boards  of  education  the  right 
to  select  textbooks  and  to  examine  and  certificate  teachers.  Five  years 
later,  when  the  new  Constitution  was  amended  to  provide  for  an  ex 
officio  State  Board  of  Education,  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the  Legislature 
to  "provide  for  a  Board  of  Education  in  each  county  of  the  state." 
This  constitutional  provision  has  ever  since  remained,  and  all  subsequent 
legislation  has  tended  to  strengthen  the  powers  and  increase  the  duties 
of  the  county  superintendent  of  schools  by  transferring  to  him  powers 
formerly  exercised  by  the  district  school  authorities.  The  right  to 
examine  and  certificate  teachers  and  to  select  textbooks  was  taken 
away  first.  The  annual  district  school  meeting,  which  elected  the 
trustees,  dictated  the  school  policy  of  the  district,  and  voted  the  district 
tax  soon  followed;  trustees  were  ordered  elected  for  three-year  terms 
instead  of  one;  and  the  school  meeting  was  later  superceded  by  a 
combined  school  and  tax  election.  The  supervision  of  the  district 
finances  next  was  taken  from  the  people  and  given  to  the  county  super- 
intendent, treasurer,  and  auditor.  The  right  of  the  district  meeting 
to  direct  the  trustees  as  to  the  employment  of  the  teacher  also  disap- 
peared. Uniform  state  laws  relating  to  finance,  length  of  term,  subjects 
of  instruction,  textbooks,  sanitary  conditions,  tax  levies,  and  expendi- 
tures have  subtracted  further  powers.  To  county  boards  of  education 
were  also  transferred  the  right  to  make  the  course  of  study  for  the 
schools,  and  to  grade  and  examine  the  pupils  for  graduation.  Even 
the  purchase  of  supplies,  while  still  left  to  the  district  trustees  to 
handle,  is  so  regulated  by  the  county  authorities  that  a  close  supervision 
over  expenditures  is  maintained.  The  county  library  system,  recently 
created,  is  another  unifying  agency,  as  yet  but  loosely  connected  with 
the  schools,  but  capable  of  a  still  closer  connection;  while  the  amend- 
ment of  the  compulsory  education  law  by  the  1919  Legislature, 
providing  for  the  appointment  of  county  school  attendance  officers,  was 
another  step  clearly  in  the  direction  of  a  closer  county  administration 
of  the  schools. 

TENDENCIES  IN  OUR  AMERICAN   STATES. 

All  over  the  United  States,  this  same  tendency  to  curtail  the  powers 
of  the  school  district  has  been  manifest,  as  the  defects  of  the  early 
district  system  have  revealed  themselves,  though  the  tendency  to  sub- 
ordinate or  abandon  the  district  form  of  organization  has  naturally 
gone  further  in  some  states  than  in  others.  The  map  which  follows 

3—7769 


34  REPORT   OF  LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE  ON   EDUCATION. 

shows  the  status  of  county  educational  organization  in  the  United 
States.  Firom  it  it  will  be  seen  that  east  of  the  Mississippi  River  the 
once  universal  district  system  has  been  almost  entirely  abandoned, 
either  for  a  form  of -town  organization,  as  in  New  England,  a  combined 
township-county  form  to  the  westward,  or  the  county  unit  in  the  south 
and  west.  California  is  classed  as  being  in  the  semi-county-unit  class, 
we  still  retaining  the  school  district  as  the  main  unit  for  educational 
organization,  but  superimposing  over  the  district  organization  a  rather 
strong  type  of  county  supervisory  control.  California  has  already  gone 
so  far  in  superimposing  county  control  that  it  could  easily  pass  from  its 
present  form  of  organization  to  a  pure  county-unit  type,  as  is  today 
found  in  Maryland,  Utah,  or  a  number  of  other  states. 

As  a  unit  .for  school  administration,  the  district  rendered  its  greatest 
service  in  the  past.     As  population  increases,  urban  conditions  spread 
throughout  a  state,  foreign  elements  enter  it,  and  modern  methods  of 
transacting  business  come  into  practice,  the  defects  of  the  district  unit 
for  school   organization   and  administration  become  more   and   more 
evident.    As  a  means  for  providing  for  the  establishment  of  schools  the 
district  system  has  rendered  its  service,  and  there  is  today  little  call  for 
the  continuation,  in  any  large  number,  of  the  kind  of  schools  which 
this  system  brought  into  existence  and  nourished  through  the  critical 
period  of  the  infancy  of  our  state  educational  systems.     To -have  a 
fully  organized  board  of  school  trustees  for  every  little  school  in  the 
county — a  board  endowed  by  law  with  corporate  rights  and  important 
financial,  legal,  and  educational  powers — is  now  generally  recognized  as 
no  more  necessary,  either  from  a  business  or  an  educational  point  of 
view,  than  it  would  be  to  have  a  special  school  board  to  employ  teachers 
and  janitors  and  to  manage  the  financial  affairs  of  every  individual 
school  house  in  our  cities.     In  fact,  it  may  be  stated  as  generally  recog- 
nized among  educational  authorities  today  that  it  is  just  such  minute 
organization,  with  the  scattering  of  authority  and  responsibility,  that 
increases  the  expenses  of  our  schools,  makes  them  ineffective  as  rural 
institutions,  and  stands  in  the  way  of  proper  educational  organization 
and  much  needed  educational  progress.     The  district  unit  is  too  small 
an  area  in  which  to  provide  modern  educational  facilities,  and  the 
difficulty  of  securing  cooperative  action  by  the  trustees  of  a  number  of 
adjacent  districts  to  form  a  larger  and  better  school  is  a  difficulty  that 
is  almost  insuperable.     Even  with  the  best  of  intentions  on  the  part  of 
the  local  boards  of  school  trustees,  they  carry  on  their  work  with  so 
little  unity  of  purpose  and  so  little  conception  of  the  real  meaning  and 
importance  of  effective  educational  service,  that  the  schools  they  oversee 
too  often  are  limited  in  scope  and  outlook,  poorly  adapted  to  modern 


COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 


3i 


36'  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

educational  needs,   poorly   taught  and  still   more   poorly   supervised, 
and  far  more  costly  than  there  is  any  reason  for  their  being. 

Experience  everywhere  has  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  district 
system  is  expensive,  inefficient,  short-sighted,  and  unprogressive ;  that 
it  leads  to  an  unnecessary  multiplication  of  small  and  inefficient  schools, 
utterly  unable  to  minister  to  the  larger  rural-life  needs  of  the  present ; 
that  under  it  country  boys  and  girls  do  not  have  equivalent  advantages 
with  the  boys  and  girls  who  live  in  the  cities ;  and  that  it  stands  today 
as  the  most  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  needed  consolidation  and 
improvement  of  our  rural  schools.  With  the  growth  of  modern  educa- 
tional needs,  the  shrinkage  of  the  rural  families  and  the  introduction 
of  much  machinery  which  has  displaced  "hands,"  and  the  coming  of 
large  foreign  elements  who  need  to  be  cared  for  in  a  good  school  and 
who  can  not  be  trusted  to  Americanize  themselves  and  their  children, 
the  old  district  form  of  school  administration  has  broken  down  and  can 
no  longer  provide  schools  suited  to  the  needs  of  country  children  and 
the  demands  of  modern  life.  In  consequence  intelligent  parents  every- 
where are  leaving  the  country  and  moving  to  town,  and  leasing  their 
farms  to  foreign-born  tenants,  and  largely  to  provide  better  educational 
facilities  for  their  children. 

THE  SITUATION   IN   CALIFORNIA. 

California  has  58  counties,  and  the  last  report  of  the  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction  gives  the  number  of  school  districts  as  3403,  for  the 
year  1919-20.  Of  these  2366,  or  70  per  cent,  employ  but  one  teacher, 
and  83  per  cent  do  not  employ  over  two  teachers.  The  table  on  the 
opposite  page  gives  details  for  each  county  in  the  state.  How  many 
districts  are  town  and  city  schools  is  not  stated,  but  if  the  301  districts 
employing  5  or  more  teachers  be  su'bstracted  for  town  and  city  schools, 
a  number  of  which  operate  under  a  board  of  education  and  have  a 
supervising  principal  or  city  superintendent,  we  shall  probably  include 
all  that  should  be  included.  For  the  57  counties,  not  counting  San 
Francisco,  we  elect  57  county  superintendents  of  schools,1  appoint  228 
members  of  county  boards  of  education,  and  the  people  elect  approxi- 
mately 10,250  school  trustees.  That  there  is  any  educational  need  for 
over  ten  thousand  school  officials  to  manage  the  affairs  of  our  rural  and 
small  village  schools  can  not  be  maintained.  To  conduct  the  educational 
business  of  our  counties  with  this  number  of  often  uninformed  and  not 
infrequently  uninterested  school  officials  requires  an  expenditure  for 


JIn  four  counties,  operating  under  county  charters,  the  county  superintendent  of 
schools  is  appointed  by  the  supervisors  in  two,  elected  by  a  special  county  board  of 
education  in  one,  and  elected  by  a  convention  of  the  school  trustees  in  one.  San 
Francisco  city  and  county  has  also  .iust  voted  (Charter  Amendment  No.  37)  to 
substitute  an  appointed  city  superintendent  of  schools  for  the  elected  county  superin- 
tendent, it  being  the  last  city  in  the  United  States  to  give  up  this  now  obsolete 
method  for  selecting  a  city  superintendent. 


COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 


37 


TABLE   I. 

Showing   the    Number  of  Small   Schools   in    Each   County   in   the   State. 
(Data  for  1919-20.) 


County 

Number  of  schools  In  county  having  but 

One 
teacher 

Two 
teachers 

Three 
teachers 

Four 
teachers 

Five  or 
more 
teachers 

Alameda             _    -  

17 

3 

32 
56 
37 
25 
28 
11 
56 
53 
30 
83 
17 
19 
67 
21 
25 
40 
GO 
29 
30 
29 
105 
38 
39 
11 
58 
43 
38 
8 
37 
29 
39 
53 
31 
42 
87 

3 

5 

4 

13 

Alpine  _.      _____________      ._ 

Amador   ... 

2 
4 
6 
2 
11 
2 
2 
4 
9 
15 
13 
5 
16 
.  10 
3 

1 

2 

1 

2 
5 
1 
1 
10 
1 
1 
18 
2 
5 
8 
1 
10 
4 

Butte 

Calaveras 

Colusa 

2 
3 

2 
1 

Contra  Costa    _ 

Del  Norte 

El  Dorado    

Fresno 

20 
2 
5 
12 
1 
3 
3 

17 

Glenn 

Humboldt 

1 
2 

Imperial 

Invo  ._  

Kern   ._  

4 
3 

2 

Kings        --  

Lake          

La^sen         _      _ 

2 
47 
2 
5 

I  os  Angeles       

22 
8 
3 
1 
2 
18 
4 

13 
4 
2 

5 

Madera      __,    --    

Marin           _    -_         _  -    

3. 

ilariposa          _  _  _  _      -  

Mendocino           _           

7 
3 

1 

3 

8 
1 

Merced                       -  

Modoe 

1 

Mono 

Monterey    ___ 

7 
5 
2 
13 
4 
3 
13 
11 
3 
4 
10 

4 

2 
3 

6 

Xapa 

Nevada 

2 
JS 
3 

Orange 

9 

2 

5 
2 
1 
5 
2 
1 
1 
1 

Placer                      „ 

Plumas                        _  _ 

Riverside 

5 
5 

7 
5 
1 
11 
9 

Sacramento                    _ 

San  Benito          _ 

San  Bernardino                 _  _  _ 

5 

San  Diego           _      -      _ 

San  Francisco      

San  Joaquin      _    __ 

51 
68 
19 
44 
34 
38 
100 
12 
81 
40 
113 
25 
25 
52 
22 
85 
25 
34 
36 
35 

22 
13 
4 
9 
15 
6 
1 
3 
3 
4 
17 
17 
4 
4 

6 
1 

2 
5 
7 
2 
1 

3 

1 
4 
3 
6 

5 

5 
7 
4 
13 
3 
2 

San  Luis  Obispo  

San  Mateo        _  __ 

Santa  Barbara           _       _    -_ 

Santa  Clara                 

Santa  Cruz    _ 

Shasta 

Sierra 

Siskiyou 

2 
1 
8 
4 
2 
1 
2 
10 
1 
2 
3 

5 
4 
7 
9 
2 
2 

Solano      -.  _ 

2 
2 
I 

1 

Sonoma   :__      _  _ 

Stanislaus 

Sutter     -       

Tehama 

Trinity           

Tul  are    

26 
2 
9 
4 
1 

3 

1 
4 
1 
2 

7 
2 
7 
3 
1 

Tuolumne  _ 

Ventura  _ 

Yolo  _ 

Yuba 

The  State  

2,366 

440 

185 

111 

301 

38  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

clerical  help,  bookkeeping,  printing,  postage,  and  time  that  is  both  large 
and  wholly  unnecessary.  Of  the  fifty  blank  report-forms  listed  by  the 
State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  as  printed  and  supplied 
by  the  state,  one-fifth  are  for  reports  from  these  boards  of  district 
school  trustees.  Any  county  superintendent  of  schools  will  testify  to 
the  necessity  for  the  careful  scrutiny  of  these  reports,  and  often  the 
necessity  of  returning  them  for  correction— sometimes  more  than  once. 

To  try  to  educate  these  boards  of  trustees  to  some  understanding  and 
appreciation  of  their  work,  the  state  has  provided  for  an  annual  trustees 
institute,  to  be  held  in  each  county,  and  to  which  each  district  board 
is  expected  to  send  one  of  its  members,  the  board  paying  him  his  ex- 
penses for  attendance.  For  the  cost  of  these  institutes  we  have  no 
accurate  record,  but"  we  know  that  the  attendance  upon  them  has  not 
been  large.  For  1919-20  thirty  county  superintendents  report  such 
institutes  as  held,  and  at  an  expense  of  $4,876.03.  If  only  one-half 
of  the  boards  complied  with  the  law  and  sent  a  representative,  and  we 
estimate  an  average  expense  of  only  $5  for  each,  $8,750  additional  must 
be  counted.  In  other  words,  at  least  $13,500  a  year  are  spent  today  in 
trying  to  give  to  one  trustee  in  three  some  better  conception  of  his 
educational  duties. 

The  bonding  of  school  districts  for  small  amounts  for  additions  and 
new  buildings  is  another  large  economic  waste.  To  vote  bonds  for 
$3,000,  as  is  not  uncommonly  done,  will  cost  not  less  than  $350  for 
legal  expenses,  printing,  and  advertising,  and  the  bonds  to  sell  must 
bear  at  least  a  1  per  cent  higher  interest  rate  than  would  county  school 
bonds,  issued  for  a  similar  purpose.  Were  the  whole  matter  of  school- 
house  construction  and  maintenance  handled  by  one  county  educational 
board,  and  for  the  county  as  a  unit,  cities  under  boards  of  education 
excepted,  and  with  an  annual  tax  for  buildings  and  repairs,  practically 
all  of  the  present  waste  for  elections,  bonding,  and  interest  would  be 
saved  and  better  results  at  the  same  time  obtained. 

When  we  add  to  these  expenses  the  very  large  expense  incurred  by 
the  maintenance  of  large  numbers  of  small,  inefficient,  and  wholly 
unnecessary  schools,  the  cost  of  the  district  system  runs  up  to  a  very 
large  total.  Due  to  increased  salaries  paid  teachers,  to  increasing  costs 
for  everything  bought  and  used,  but  largely  to  the  small  size  of  the 
schools  maintained,  a  school  of  10  to  15  children  often  costs  more,  and 
usually  as  much,  provided  an  equal  length  of  term  is  considered,  as 
does  a  city  school  of  35  to  40  children,  whereas  the  education  offered 
is  not  nearly  so  good.  Experience  in  other  states  has  clearly  demon- 
strated that,  under  a  county-unit  form  of  educational  administration, 
from  one-fourth  to  one-third  of  the  teachers  in  the  rural  schools  of  any 


COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 


39 


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40  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

county  can  be  dispensed  with  by  means  of  that  consolidation  of  schools 
which  inevitably  ensues  when  their  administration  is  directed  by  one 
county  educational  board,  the  per  capita  cost  for  education  is  decreased, 
and  the  quality  of  the  education  provided  rural  children  can  be  at  the 
same  time  very  materially  improved. 

Counting  the  boards  of  supervisors,  who  possess  some  educational 
functions,  we  have  in  California  the  triple-headed  educational  organ- 
ization for  our  counties  shown  by  the  chart  on  the  preceding  page. 

A   FUNDAMENTAL   REORGANIZATION   NEEDED. 

What  is  needed  is  a  fundamental  reorganization  and  redirection  of 
rural  and  small  village  education,  and  along  lines  which  will  transform 
such  schools  into  more  useful  educational  and  social  institutions.  This, 
however,  can  be  accomplished  only  by  some  authority  of  larger  scope 
and  insight  than  the  district  school  trustee,  and  by  the  application  to 
the  problem  of  a  larger  type  of  administrative  experience  than  that 
represented  by  district  control.  To  provide  properly  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  our  rural  and  village  schools,  to  increase  their  efficiency,  to 
decrease  their  expense,  to  provide  them  with  adequate  professional  super- 
vision, and  to  enable  children  in  them  to  enjoy  some  of  the  special 
educational  advantages  which  city  children  today  enjoy,  demands  that 
the  administrative  experience  of  our  city  school  systems  be  applied  to 
our  counties  as  well.  This  would  mean  the  abolition  of  the  small 
school  district  as  a  corporate  administrative  unit,  as  was  done  by  the 
cities  everywhere  long  ago ;  the  erection  of  the  county,  outside  of  cities, 
into  one  County-Unit  School  District;  and  the  management  of  the 
schools  of  each  county,  outside  of  included  cities  having  boards  of 
education  and  a  city  superintendent  of  schools  or  a  supervising  prin- 
cipal, as  a  single  financial  and  educational  unit,  just  as  the  schools  of 
our  cities  are  now  managed.  Such  a  fundamental  reorganization,  care- 
fully worked  out  for  San  Mateo  County,2  is  shown  in  Figures  8  and  9. 
The  chief  differences  between  a  county-unit  system  of  schools,  such  as 
today  exist  in  Maryland,  Florida,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  or  Utah,  or  as 
is  shown  in  Figure  9,  and  a  city  school  system  such  as  that  of  Sacra- 
mento, Stockton,  or  Fresno,  would  be  that  the  schools  would  be  smaller, 
probably  more  numerous  and  farther  apart,  and  that  they  would  be 
organized  with  special  reference  to  educational  efficiency  and  to  the 
needs  of  rural  and  village  life. 

Nowhere  else  in  our  political  organization  do  we  retain  so  small  a 
governmental  unit  as  the  school  district.  In  the  assessment  of  property, 


2Made  by  Dr.  J.  Harold  Williams,  in  1915,  and  published  by  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Education,  as  Bulletin  16,  1916,  under  the  title  of  "Reorganizing  a 
County  System  of  Schools."  Washington,  1916. 


COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  41 

taxation,  recording  of  deeds  and  contracts,  payment  of  taxes,  building 
of  highways  and  bridges,  provision  of  hospital  service  and  poor  relief, 
supervision  of  agricultural  work,  enforcement  of  traffic  laws,  mainten- 
ance of  libraries,  etc.,  we  today  use  the  county  or  the  large  city  as  our 
smallest  administrative  unit.  In  some  of  these  matters  we  are  finding 
the  county  too  small,  and  are  transferring  certain  functions  to  the 
state  to  secure  better  administration.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  admin- 
istration of  so  important  a  subject  as  public  education  should  not  be 
conducted  on  the  basis  of  a  unit  large  enough  to  ensure  educational 
efficiency.  The  coming  of  the  paved  highway  and  motor  transportation 
have  given  new  emphasis  to  the  need  for  such  educational  reorganization. 
A  transfer  to  the  county-unit  for  school  control  could  be  made  in 
California  by  legislative  action,  each  county,  cities  under  boards  of 
education  excepted.  being  declared  by  law  to  be  one  school  district  and, 
as  such,  placed  under  a  county  board  of  education  for  administrative 
control.  The  present  districts  would  then  become  attendance  sub-dis- 
tricts, capable  of  being  combined  and  altered  by  the  county  board  of 
education  as  the  educational  needs  of  the  county  might  seem  from  time 
to  time  to  require,  just  as  city  boards  of  education  alter  the  attendance 
lines  for  their  different  schools.  The  corporate  powers  of  the  present 
districts  would  be  taken  from  them  and  transferred  to  the  county  boards 
of  education,  which  would  assume  title  to  the  school  property  and 
charge  of  the  rural  and  small  town  schools  of  the  county.  The  boards 
of  district  school  trustees  would  disappear,  being  replaced,  perhaps,  by 
one  appointed  attendance-district  trustee,  or  director,  with  few  and 
simple  duties,  while  all  educational  and  financial  powers  now  possessed 
by  the  3102  boards  of  school  trustees  for  the  small  districts  would  be 
transferred  to  the  57  county  boards  of  education  and  their  executive 
officers,  the  county  superintendent  of  schools,  the  secretary  of  the  county 
board,  and  the  special  supervisors  employed  to  visit  and  supervise  the 
schools. 

THE  CONSOLIDATION   OF  SCHOOLS. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  in  many  of  our  states,  during  the  past 
tweutv-five  to  thirty  years,  to  provide  a  remedv  for  the  defects  of  the 
district,  system  by  permitting  of  the  consolidation  of  two  or  more  school 
districts  to  form  a  union  school,  and  the  transportation  of  the  children 
from  the  abandoned  schools  to  the  larger  and  better-organized  and 
better-taught  central  school.  Here  and  there  in  a  few  progressive  com- 
munities some  remarkable  results  have  been  attained  by  this  plan. 
Where  good  consolidated  schools  can  be  formed  they  are  very  desirable. 


42 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON    EDUCATION. 


SAN  AATEO  COUNT! 

SHOWINS  LOCATION  OF  SCHOOLS  UNDER  PRESENT 
£  ONE-TEACHER  RURAL  SCHOOL 
6  TWO-TEACHER  RURAL  SCHOOL 

til  THREE-TEACHER  RURAL  SCHOOL 

fi  ELEMENTARt   5CHOOJ    VJITH  PRINCIPAL 

A   HIGH  SCHOOL 

UNION   HI0H  SCHOOL 


FIG.  8.     SHOWING  SAN  MATEO  COUNTY  BEFORE  REORGANIZATION. 

(From  Williams'  study,  made  in  1915,  and  published  by  the  United  Slatc-s 
Bureau  of  Education.)  This  shows  a  county  having  37  elementary  srhnul 
districts  and  three  high  school  districts. 


COUNTY'  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 


T>;    «AM  FRANCISCO 


SAN  flATZO  COUNTY 

SHOWINft   LOCATION  OF    SCHOOLS 
UNDER    PROPOSED    PLAN 

ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  WITH  PRINCIPAL 
COUNTY  HISH  SCHOOL 


INDICATE     NUMBER  OF 

TEACHERS    IN  ELEMENTARY  SCMOOiA 
COOHTf  If/TERnEDIATt  SCHOOL 


FIG.  9.     SHOWING  SAN  MATEO  COUNTY  REORGANIZED. 

(From  Williams'  study,  made  in  1915,  and  published  by  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Education.)  This  shows  the  county  reorganized  into  13  attendance  districts  for 
elementary  education,  and  five  high  school  attendance  districts.  There  would  also  be 
at  La  Honda  an  Intermediate  School,  offering1  partial  high  school  work. 


44  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   OX    EDUCATION. 

They  materially  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  instruction,  provide  oppor- 
tunities for  education  comparable  with  those  which  city  children  enjoy, 
and  reduce  the  per  capita  costs  for  instruction.  Even  a  two-room  con- 
solidated school  is  better  than  a  one-rcom  district  school,  but  a  four- 
room  or  a  six- room  school  is  still  better.  In  connection  with  such  consoli- 
dated schools  "teacherages"  can  be  provided,  often  by  building  over 
into  a  residence  an  old  one-room  school  building,  and  these  provide 
teachers  with  homes  and  serve  to  attract  a  much  better  grade  of  teachers 
to  the  rural  schools. 

The  trouble  with  the  consolidated  school  idea,  as  usually  carried  out, 
is  that  the  consolidated  schools  are  too  hard  to  form,  and  when  formed 
are  usually  too  small.  In  no  district-system  state  has  the  consolidation 
of  schools  made  any  large  headway,  for  the  reason  that  the  people  of 
the  districts,  and  their  trustees,  cannot  be  educated  up  to  the  advan- 
tages of  large  consolidations  fast  enough,  and  for  the  further  reason 
that  the  laws  usually  require  an  affirmative  vote  of  the  people  of  the 
districts,  and  mistaken  conceptions,  real-estate  ambitions,  and  an  erron- 
eous local  pride  usually  block  constructive  action.  For  example,  Cali- 
fornia has  had  such  a  permissive  law  for  the  past  eighteen  years,  but 
to  1919-20  only  59  consolidated  elementary  school  districts  have  been 
formed  under  the  law,  and  most  of  these  have  been  too  small.3  While 
the  consolidation  of  schools  is  a  desirable  movement,  the  defects  of  the 
idea  for  solving  the  educational  and  financial  problems  surrounding  the 
education  of  children  in  the  country  lie  in  the  difficulty  of  securing 
action,  the  slowness  of  action  under  the  plan,  and  the  fact  that  most 
consolidations  so  far  formed  have  been  too  small  and  in  time  will  need 
to  be  done  over  again.  While  fully  acknowledging  the  advantages  of 
the  consolidation  movement,  where  it  can  be  carried  out  in  an  effective 
manner,  the  real  remedy,  nevertheless,  lies  in  the  substitution  of  a 
county-unit  form  of  school  administration  by  the  Legislature,  rather 
than  in  waiting  for  voluntary  consolidation  by  the  districts.  Only  this 
will  ensure  the  provision  of  adequate  consolidated  schools,  where  needed 
and  possible,  within  any  reasonable  period  of  time,  and  at  the  same 
time  provide  the  needed  unification  of  school  administration  in  our 
counties. 

A    COUNTY-UNIT    PLAN    OF    ORGANIZATION. 

From  a  study  of  our  best  American  experience  in  county-unit  school 
organization  and  administration,  the  following  may  be  stated  as  contain- 

3During  the  present  year  a  still  larger  number  of  consolidations  have  been  formed 
caused  almost  entirely  by  the  teacher  shortage.  Most  of  these  have  been  merely  the 
union  of  two  neighboring  schools,  so  that  all  children  might  be  taught,  and  can 
scarcely  be  considered  as  real  consolidations.  In  the  best  sense  of  the  term  Cali- 
fornia has  as  yet  practically  no  consolidated  schools,  and  few  are  likely  so  long  as  the 
district  system  of  management  is  retained. 


COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  45 

ing  the  essentials  of  a  good  form  of  county-unit  educational  reorganiza- 
tion, as  applied  to  California. 

I.     GENERAL  CONTROL. 

1.  Abolition  of  the  school  districts  as  separate  corporate  bodies,  and 
the  consolidation,  for  purposes  of  administration,  of  all  school  districts 
in  the  county,  outside  of  cities,  into  one  county  school  district.     Each 
county  would  then  have  but  one  county  school  district,  with  attendance 
subdistricts,  and  one  or  more  city  school  districts. 

2.  Abolition  of  the  present  professional  county  boards  of  education, 
and  provision  for  the  election  of  lay  county  boards  of  education,  of 
five  members,  elected  by  the  people  of  the  county  at  large,  or  by  election 
districts,  and  for  four-year  terms  and  so  classified  that  the  smallest 
possible  number  change  each  year.4     This  board  would  occupy  for  the 
county  a  position  exactly  analagous  to  a  city  board  of  education  for 
a  city. 

3.  If  put  into  effect  by  legislative  act  at  once,  the  present  county 
superintendents  of  schools  would  become  the  executive  officers  of  the 
new  county  boards  of  education,  but,  as  soon  as  the  constitution  can 
be  amended,  such  a  double-headed  arrangement  should  be  abandoned. 
After  such  amendment,  each  county  board  of  education  would  appoint 
the  county  superintendent  of  schools,  or  county  commissioner  of  educa- 
tion, under  provisions  of  a  general  state  law,  and  fix  his  salary.     In 
making  this  appointment  they  should  have  the  same  freedom  in  selection 
as  have  city  boards  of  education  or  boards  of  high  school  trustees  today. 
Such  officer  should  enjoy  the  same  rights,  tenure,  and  privileges  as  a 
city  superintendent  of  schools,  and  have  somewhat  the  same  adminis- 
trative and  supervisory  duties  and  powers. 

4.  Each  county  board  of  education  should  succeed  to  the  title  of  the 
school  property  of  the  districts,  outside  of  the  cities,  and  have  power 
to  consolidate,  sell,  build,  repair,  and  purchase  school  property. 

5.  Each  county  board  of  education  should  also  assume  charge  of  the 
property  and  administration  of  any  county  high  schools  existing  or 
later  established,  and  any  county  vocational  schools,  county  agricul- 
tural high  schools,  or  county  parental  schools  to  be  established,  and 
some  plan  should  be  wrorked  out  for  bringing  union  district  high  schools 
not  in  cities  into  a  general  county  plan  for  providing  secondary  educa- 
tion for  all  children  of  the  county. 

6.  Each  county  board  of  education  to  be  directed  to  make  a  careful 
study  of  the  educational  needs  of  the  county,  and  its  educational  resour- 
ces, and  in  this  to  be  assisted  by  experts  detailed  for  the  work  from  the 


4It  would  be  still  better  if  constitutional  provisions  did  not  prohibit,  if  the  term  of 
office  were  made  five  years,  one  to  go  out  of  office  each  year. 


46' 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


.    '/-   33 


COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  47 

State  Department  of  Education.  On  the  basis  of  such  study  the  county 
boards  should  proceed  to  a  gradual  reorganization  of  the  school  system 
of  the  county,  with  a  view  to  improving  the  educational  advantages 
offered  and  if  possible  reducing  the  cost. 

II.     BUSINESS  AND  CLERICAL  CONTROL. 

1.  Each  county"  board  of  education  to  appoint  a  secretary  and  business 
manager,  who  shall  act  as  secretary  for  the  board  and  conduct  the 
clerical,  statistical,  and  financial  work  connected  with  the  county  educa- 
tional office.     The  county  board  to  fix  the  salary,  and  determine  the 
assistance  needed  for  each  such  officer. 

2.  The  secretary  to  have  charge  of  the  office,  make  all  purchases,  draw 
all  warrants,  purchase  and  distribute  supplies,  and  have  general  over- 
sight of  the  janitor  and  repair  work  of  the  schools. 

3.  The  secretary  to  be  the  custodian  of  all  legal  papers  belonging  to 
the  county  board  of  education,  to  give  all  required  notices,  to  administer 
oaths,  to  register  all  teachers'  certificates,  to  keep  a  set  of  books  covering 
all  financial  transactions,  to  sign  contracts  as  directed,  and  to  perform 
such  other  similar  duties  as  may  be  assigned  to  him.     In  a  sense  he 
would  succeed  to  a  large  part  of  the  present  duties  of  the  county  super- 
intendents, leaving  them  free  for  the  more  important  educational  duties 
of  school  supervision,  at  present  largely  neglected. 

4.  Each  county  board  of  education  to  approve  an  annual  budget  for 
the  schools  under  its  control,  and  to  recommend  the  annual  county 
school  tax  and  notify  the  supervisors  of  the  amount  to  be  levied.    This 
tax  to  include  all  other  educational  tax  levies  for  cities  and  high  school 
districts  within  the  county,  and  the  income  from  such  tax  to  be  dis- 
tributed to  such  according  to  law. 

III.     EDUCATIONAL  CONTROL. 

1.  Each  county  board  of  education,  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
county  superintendent  of  schools,  to  appoint  all  teachers  needed  for  the 
county,  outside  of  cities,  and  to  fix  and  order  paid  their  salaries;  also 
to  appoint  special  teachers  and  supervisors,  janitors,  attendance  officers, 
and  such  other  educational  employees  as  may  be. needed. 

2.  Either  separately,  or  in  connection  with  a  city  or  an  adjoining 
county,  also  to  appoint  county  attendance  officers,  county  school  physi- 
cians and  nurses,  and  any  special  teachers  needed. 

3.  Similarly,  each  county  board  to  have  power,  singly  or  in  coopera- 
tion, to  establish  a  county  agricultural  high  school,  a  county  junior 
college,  or  any  other  type  of  special  county  school  that  may  be  author- 


48 


REPORT   OP    UCGlSr.ATlVK    COMMITTEE   ON    EDUCATION. 


County 
Librarian 

Branch 
LiTorarlans 

COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  49 

ized  by  law,  and  also  to  approve  all  new  projects  for  the  extension  or 
change  of  the  system  of  schools. 

IV.     FUNCTION  OF  THE  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  SCHOOLS. 

In  addition  to  the  powers  and  duties  previously  enumerated,  the 
county  superintendent  of  schools  to  have  the  following  powers  and 
duties : — 

1.  To  act  as  the  executive  officer  of  the  county  board  of  education, 
and  the  head  of  the  county  department  of  education,  and  to  execute, 
in  person  or  through  subordinates,  all  educational  policies  decided  upon 
by  the  county  board. 

2.  To  represent  the  state  educational  authorities  in  the  county;  to 
decide  disputes  under  the  school  law,  subject  to  appeal  to  the  Legal 
Division  of  the  State  Educational  Department;  to  exercise  supervisory 
control  over  all  schools  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  county  board  of 
education;  to  nominate  and  assign  all  teachers  and  principals,  and 
supervise  their  work ;  to  visit  and  supervise  the  schools  of  the  county ; 
to  hold  local  and  county  teachers'  institutes,  and  direct  the  reading 
circle  work ;  and  to  labor  in  all  practicable  ways  for  the  improvement  of 
the  education  given  to  country  and  town  boys  and  girls. 

3.  To  recommend  changes  in  the  organization  and  distribution  of  the 
schools ;  to  oversee  the  preparation  of  all  courses  of  study  used  in 
schools  under  his  jurisdiction,  and  to  approve  the  same ;  to  approve  for 
purchase  all  school  supplies  and  supplemental  books;  and  to  prepare 
and  issue  an  annual  printed  report  as  to  the  work  of  the  schools  of 
the  county. 

V.     COMBINATION  OF  COUNTIES,  OR  COUNTIES  AND  CITIES. 

The  Legislature  should  provide  means  under  which  two  small  and 
adjacent  counties  may  be  combined  for  such  county-unit  administration, 
or  under  which  a  city  may  join  with  the  county  to  provide  a  single 
administration  for  all  of  the  schools  of  the  county. 

The  form  of  organization,  and  the  relationships,  which  would  ensue 
under  such  a  county-unit  plan  as  is  sketched  above,  are  shown  in  the 
diagram  given  on  the  opposite  page. 

It  ought  to  be  emphasized  that  such  a  county-unit  form  of  educational 
organization  as  is  here  outlined  does  not  in  itself  involve  the  abandon- 
ment of  a  single  existing  school.  The  county-unit  form  of  organization 
is  essentially  a  business  and  educational  plan  for  the  better  administra- 
tion of  the  schools  of  the  county,  either  existing  or  later  to  be.  Once 
applied,  however,  it  will  naturally  result  in  the  gradual  replacement  of 
many  small  and  unnecessary  schools,  prevent  the  further  splitting  of 

4—7769 


50  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

districts  to  form  new  small  schools,  and  in  time  ensure  the  erection,  at 
central  places,  of  new  and  larger  and  better  school  buildings,  and  the 
transportation  of  the  children  to  the  new  central  schools.  The  increased 
value  of  the  education  that  can  be  so  provided,  and  the  decreased  per 
capita  cost  for  schooling  that  would  result  under  the  county-unit  plan, 
would  insure  the  gradual  consolidation  of  the  schools  into  larger  units 
in  a  way  that  will  never  be  possible  under  the  district  system.  All  that 
the  county-unit  plan  of  organization  does,  at  first,  is  to  apply  the  admin- 
istrative experience  of  our  cities  to  county  school  control,  to  substitute 
centralized  administration  over  the  schools  of  a  county,  open  the  way 
for  educational  and  business  reorganization,  and  make  possible  a  rapid 
improvement  in  educational  conditions  throughout  a  county. 

HOW  TO  INSTITUTE  SUCH   A   REORGANIZATION. 

There  are  two  methods  by  means  of  which  such  a  form  of  educational 
reorganization  could  be  instituted  in  this  state.  The  first  plan,  which 
has  been  the  plan  followed  by  most  states  which  have  made  the  change, 
is  for  the  Legislature  to  order,  by  general  state  law,  that  the  change 
be  made  after  a  certain  time.  The  second  method,  followed  by  Utah,1 
is  for  the  Legislature  to  adopt  an  optional  county-unit  law,  at  first  to 
apply  only  to  those  counties  adopting  it  by  vote,  all  counties  being 
required  to  vote  on  the  question  the  first  year  after  its  enactment,  and 
later,  after  its  somewhat  general  introduction,  to  order  it  compulsory 
for  all  and  apply  it  to  the  state  as  a  whole.  Various  forms  of  county- 
unit  organization  could  be  provided  for,  much  as  does  the  law  organizing 
high  school  districts,  so  that  there  might  be  county-unit  school  districts 
which  included  no  city,  others  which  included  a  small  city  but  not 
large  ones,  still  others  in  which  the  city  and  county  districts  are  one, 
and  joint  county  school  districts  which  included  two  adjacent  counties. 
Manifestly  such  a  county,  as  Alpine  would  have  alone  no  need  for  a 
county-unit  form  of  educational  organization,  and  ought,  for  educational 
purposes,  to  be  attached  to  some  contiguous  county.  Manifestly 
.San  Francisco  should  not  be  included  in  the  plan. 

The  steps  in  the  process  would  be  about  as  follows: 
1.  The  abolition,  by  law,  of  the  present  professional  county 
of  education,  and  the  creation  in  their  stead  of  a  new  type  of  lay  county 
boards  of  education,  to  be  elected  from  the  county,  for  four-year  terms, 
at  a  school  election,  and  to  occupy  in  county  education;il  affairs  a  posi- 
tion similar  to  that  held  by  city  boards  of  education  for  city  school 


'In  Utah  an  optional  county-unit  law  was  enacted  In  1905,  to  meet  the  wishes  of 
one  county  desiring  to  organize  under  such  a  law.  By  1915  nearly  two-thirds  of  the 
counties  in  the  state  had  voted  to  accept  the  county-unit  law,  and  the  Legislature  then 
ordered  it  required  for  all  counties.  By  the  1920  census  the  population  of  Utah 
averaged  5.4  to  the  square  mile,  while  that  of  California  averaged  21.9. 


COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATION.  51 

affairs,  and  also  somewhat  analagous  to  that  held  by  the  State  Board 
of  Education  for  the  whole  state. 

2.  For  the   present  the   elected  county  .superintendents  of  schools 
should  be  designated  to  act  as  the  chief  executive  officers  for  the  new 
county  boards  of  education,  just  as  the  State  Superintendent  does  for 
the  State  Board  of  Education.     However,  as  this  will  create  the  same 
double-headed  type  of  educational  organization  for  our  counties  that  we 
now  have  in  our  state  educational  organization,  this  condition  should 
he  e hanged  by  constitutional  amendment  as  soon  as  possible,  and  for 
the  same  reasons  detailed  in  the  preceding  chapter.    Article  IX,  section 
3,  of  our  state  Constitution  now  requires  the  election,  by  the  qualified 
electors,  of  a  county  superintendent  of  schools,  at  each  gubernatorial 
election  for  each  county  in  the  state,  unless  provided  for  otherwise  under 
the  provisions  of  Article  XI  of  the  Constitution,  permitting  of  county 
charters.    Five  counties  have  now  availed  themselves  of  this  provision.1 
Any  general  county-unit  law  should  provide  means  for  the  transfer, 
for  educational  purposes,  by  any  county  from  the  county  charter  provis- 
ions to  the  uniform  state  law  for  educational  reorganization.    Article 
IX.  section  3  of  the  state  Constitution  should  be  replaced  by  a  new 
section  reading  somewhat  as  follows : 

Sec.  3.  The  Legislature  shall  provide  for  the  election  or  appointment 
of  a  county  superintendent  of  schools  for  each  county  in  this  state. 

3.  The  abolition  of  the  district  system  of  school  organization  by  insti- 
tuting in  its  place  a  comprehensive  form  of  county-unit  school  organiza- 
tion, embodying  the  essential  features  of  the  plan  which  has  been  out- 
lined in  this  chapter. 

The  above  steps  the  Committee  believe  should  be  taken  for  this  state 
as  rapidly  as  can  be  done. 

SUMMARY  OF   FINDINGS  AND    RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In  summary  form,  the  findings  and  recommendations  of  the  Com- 
mittee are  as  follows: 

1.  California  has  for  long  been  moving  toward  a  modification  of  the 
district  system  for  school  control  by  the  gradual  introduction  of  county 
control,  and  today  represents  an  intermediate  stage  in  development. 

2.  The  district  unit  for  school  administration  has  done  its  best  work. 


JLos  Angeles  and  San  Bernardino  counties,  where  the  supervisors  appoint  the 
county  superintendent,  as  a  county  officer  ;  Tehama  County,  where  the  superintendent 
is  elected  at  a  convention  of  the  school  trustees  of  the  county,  after  the  Pennsylvania 
plan  ;  Butte  County,  where  a  special  county  board  of  education  is  elected  for  the  one 
purpose  of  selecting  and  appointing  the  county  superintendent ;  and  San  Francisco 
combined  city  and  county,  which  has  just  voted  to  substitute  a  superintendent 
appointed  by  the  board  of  education,  with  freedom  to  select  him  from  anywhere  and 
to  fix  his  salary,  for  the  election  of  a  citizen  by  popular  vote,  which  it  has  had  for 
so  long. 


52  REPORT  OF  LEGISLATIVE:  COMMITTEE  ON  EDUCATION. 

it  is  expensive  and  ineffective,  and  present-day  needs  in  rural  education 
call  for  its  abolition. 

3.  The  logical  unit  for  school  administration,  as  in  other  governmental 
affairs,  is  the  county,  and  a  transition  to  this  in  California  would  be 
easy,  and  should  be  made  by  legislative  direction. 

4.  The  consolidation  of  schools  idea  is  good,  but  voluntary  action  by 
the  districts  is  too  slow  and  the  unions  formed  are  too  small. 

5.  A  fundamental  reorganization  of  the  administration  of  rural  and 
village  education  is  called  for,  and  a  plan  for  such  is  sketched. 

6.  The  steps  in  the  process  would  be,  and  these  the  Committee  recom- 
mends be  taken,  as  follows : 

(a)  Abolition  by  law  of  the  present  professional  county  boards  of 
education,  and  the  creation  of  lay  boards,  with  new  powers,  in  their 
stead. 

(b)  The  abolition  of  the  district  system  of  school  administration,  and 
the  enactment,  in  its  place,  of  an  optional  comprehensive  county-unit 
law. 

(c)  The  amendment  of  article  IX,  section  3  of  the  Constitution,  to 
provide  for  the  appointment  of  county  superintendents  of  schools. 


THE  PROBLEM   OP  TEACHER  TRAINING.  53 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  TEACHER  TRAINING. 

THE   CALIFORNIA    DEVELOPMENT. 

A  problem  which  early  attracted  attention  in  this  state  was  the 
problem  of  teacher  training.  As  early  as  1862  the  first  state  normal 
school,  afterwards  located  at  San  Jose,  was  established.  There  were  at 
that  time  but  twelve  public  and  eight  or  nine  private  normal  schools  in 
the  United  States,  and  all  of  these  were  in  the  section  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River  and  north  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Potomac.  The  following 
year  (1863)  the  first  state  aid  for  teachers'  institutes,  another  new  edu- 
cational idea  found  only  in  the  same  locality  as  the  early  normal  schools, 
was  granted  by  a  state  law  which  at  the  same  time  enacted  new  regu- 
lations for  the  certification  of  teachers  for  the  schools.  California  was 
the  first  state  west  of  the  Mississippi  River  to  provide  for  these  two  new 
institutions  for  teacher  training.  The  inspiration  for  them  came  from 
teachers  migrating  from  New  York  and  New  England,  then  the  centers 
of  educational  progress  in  the  United  States.  The  lead  which  California 
then  took  in  the  preparation  of  teachers  has  ever  since  been  retained. 
Since  1862  other  state  normal  schools  have  been  established,  as  follows : 

1881 — Los  Angeles  State  Normal  School.  (In  1919  transformed 
into  a  southern  branch  of  the  University  of  California.) 

1887— Chico  State  Normal  School. 

1897— San  Diego  State  Normal  School. 

1899 — San  Francisco  State  Normal  School. 

1909 — Santa  Barbara  State  Normal  School  of  Manual  Arts  and 
Home  Economics.  (In  1919  changed  to  Santa  Barbara 
State  Normal  School.) 

1911 — Fresno  State  Normal  School. 

1913 — Humboldt  (Arcata)  State  Normal  School. 
Each  of  the  normal  schools  forms  a  part  of  the  public  school  system, 
and  each  is  under  a  board  of  five  appointed  trustees,  with  the  Gov- 
ernor and  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  as  an  ex  officio  mem- 
bers. In  all  matters  relating  to  entrance  requirements,  courses  of  study, 
and  graduation  requirements,  these  schools  have  recently  been  made 
subject  to  regulation  by  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

These  institutions,  together  with  the  migration  to  California  in  the 
past  two  decades  of  many  normal-trained  teachers  from  eastern  states, 
have  served,  coupled  with  good  finance,  to  give  this  state  one  of  the 
highest  percentages  of  trained  teachers  to  be  found  in  any  state  of 
the  Union.  In  1920,  despite  recent  losses,  this  still  stood  at  79.65  per 
cent,  measured  for  the  state  as  a  whole.  The  map  on  the  following  page 


54 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


FFF.C 


TEACHERS 

in  each  County  in 
CALIFORNIA 

1919-20 


State  normal  Schools 
Chief  Railroad  Linee 


FIG.   12.     SHOWING  LOCATION  OF  THE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOLS,  AND  THE 
PERCENTAGE  OF  TRAINED  TEACHERS  IN  EACH  COUNTY. 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  TEACHER  TRAINING.  55 

shows  the  percentage  of  trained  teachers  teaching  in  the  elementary 
and  high  schools  of  this  state  in  the  autumn  of  1920,  by  counties.  The 
range  is  from  98.10  per  cent  in  Santa  Clara  County,  to  21.15  per  cent 
in  Tuolumne  County.  The  map  also  shows  the  location  of  the  state 
normal  schools,  mountains,  and  chief  railway  lines,  and  it  will  be  noted 
that  the  number  of  trained  teachers  in  any  county  is  largely  dependent 
upon  the  ease  with  which  students  from  that  county  can  reach  a  state 
normal  school.  The  indication  from  this  map,  showing  the  distribution 
of  trained  teachers,  is  that  the  general  diffusion  of  teacher-training 
institutions  over  this  state  has  been  wise.  Other  states  have  had  the 
same  experience. 

THE    RECENT   CRISIS   IN   TEACHER   TRAINING. 

Up  to  1917  the  normal  schools  of  California  were  filled  with  students, 
but  since  that  year  these  institutions  have  experienced  a  serious  decline 
both  in  the  number  of  students  and  of  graduates.  The  same  falling-ofii 
has  been  true  for  other  states,  as  well  as  for  California.  The  quality  of 
the  normal  school  student  also  has  declined.  In  1913-14  the  normal 
schools  of  California  graduated  1,539  teachers,  whereas  in  1919-20  the 
number  was  approximately  1,100.  In  the  whole  United  States  there 
were  13,681  teachers  graduated  in  1916,  and  but  9,514  in  1919.  In 
all  states,  too,  there  has  been  a  serious  shortage  of  teachers  for  the 
schools  since  1917.  Though  there  has  been  some  improvement  since  the 
autumn  of  1919,  yet  at  the  opening  of  the  present  school  year  (1920-21), 
the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  estimated  that  the  schools 
of  the  nation  were  still  short  approximately  75,000  elementary  teachers 
and  15,000  high  school  teachers,  while  to  supply  any  type  of  teacher 
for  the  schools,  standards  had  been  so  lowered  that  from  one-third  to 
two-fifths  of  the  teaching  staff  of  the  nation  were  seriously  lacking  in 
preparation.  Inadequately  prepared  and  paid  as  teachers  w^ere  before 
the  war.  the  rise  in  prices  has  made  professional  training  on  the  old 
pay  standards  largely  out  of  the  question.  In  consequence,  the  normal 
schools  no  longer  attract  as  they  once  did.  Young  people,  who  five  or 
ten  years  ago  would  naturally  have  turned  to  teaching,  are  now  drawn 
to  other  lines  of  usefulness  or  to  other  types  of  institutions  for  study. 
Our  colleges  and  universities  are  crowded  as  never  before  in  their  his- 
tory; our  normal  schools  are  depleted  in  attendance  as  they  have  not 
been  in  the  past  quarter  of  a  century.  AVhilc  California  normal  schools 
are  in  better  condition  a.s  regards  students  than  those  of  most  eastern 
states,  the  same  causes  and  consequences  are  nevertheless  felt  here. 

One  of  the  mo.st  serious  phases  of  the  problem  of  providing  trained 
teachers  for  tli<'  schools  lies  in  the  continual  loss  of  those  who  represent 


56'  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  best  trained  and  experienced  members  of  the  teaching  profession. 
In  this  California  has  suffered  as  have  other  states.  The  war  directed 
new  attention  to  the  teacher  as  an  organizer  and  an  executive,  and  this 
business  executives  have  been  quick  to  recognize.  Within  recent  years 
hundreds  of  our  best  educated  and  best  trained  teachers  have  been  drawn 
from  the  work  of  the  school  by  reason  of  much  better  positions  in  the 
business  world.  In  consequence,  the  teaching  profession  has  been 
steadily  losing  its  best  trained  and  most  competent  teachers,  as  well  as 
failing  to  attract  an  adequate  supply  of  new  material  to  its  training 
institutions. 

PAY  OF  NORMAL  SCHOOL  INSTRUCTORS. 

Our  normal  schools,  too,  on  the  wholly  inadequate  salary  schedule  they 
have  been  forced  to  maintain,  also  can  not  retain  their  best  instructors 
or  replace  their  losses  with  persons  of  the  proper  grade  of  training.  In 
California,  the  salary  schedules  in  our  normal  schools  have  been  so 
low  that  they  have  scarcely  been  able  to  compete  for  instructors,  during 
the  past  half  dozen  years,  with  our  middle-rank  high  schools.  When 
one  considers  that  the  normal  school  is  training  teachers  for  the  future, 
and  that  the  character  of  our  teachers  and  schools  ten  or  fifteen  years 
from  now  will  be  largely  determined  by  the  character  of  the  instructors 
in  our  normal  schools  today,  the  seriousness  of  the  situation  .will  be 
evident.  All  in  all,  it  is  not  surprising  that  practically  no  men  are 
longer  attracted  to  our  normal  schools  for  training  as  teachers,  or  that 
the  best  types  of  women  prefer  to  go  to  college  where  they  may  find  a 
larger  outlook  and  better  instruction. 

RECENT  STUDIES  OF  THE  PROBLEM. 

A  nation-wide  survey  of  the  situation,  made  during  the  present  year, 
with  replies  from  34  states,  gave  the  following  as  reasons  and  remedies : 

Reasons  for  the  teacher  shortage. 

1.  Low  salaries  and  poor  working  conditions. 

2.  Better  opportunities  in  other  lines  than  teaching. 

3.  Both  men  and  women  prefer  to  study  in  a  college,  where  they 

find  better  instructors  and  a  wider  range  of  instruction  from 
which  to  choose. 

4.  High  school  teachers  are  usually  college  graduates,  and  they, 

consciously  or  unconsciously,  deflect  students  to  the  colleges. 

5.  Lack   of   discrimination   in   electing   and   paying   teachers    by 

boards  of  school  trustees. 

6.  Outside  of  the  larger  city  school  systems,  and  the  high  school, 

no  career  for  men  in  educational  work. 

Remedies  for  the  situation. 

1.  Better  salaries  and  working  conditions.     The  teacher-shortage 
problem  at  bottom  is  economic  and  social. 


THE  PROBLEM   OF   TEACHER  TRAINING.  57 

2.  Improvement   in   educational   organization   and   administration 

that  will  better  open  up  educational  service  as  a  career. 

3.  Better  teaching  facilities,  and  broader  opportunities  for  study 

in  the  teacher-training  schools. 

4.  Collegiate  status  for  the  normal  schools,  with  power  to  grant 

a  degree. 

5.  Materially   higher   pay    for   normal   school   teachers,    and   the 

employment  of  a  much  better  type. 

6.  More  rigid  and  better  organized  certification  laws,  to  weed  out 

incompetents  and  place  more  premium  on  training. 

There  also  appeared,  within  the  past  six  months,  the  long-awaited 
study  of  "The  Professional  Preparation  of  Teachers  for  American 
Public  Schools,"  made  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Teaching.1  This  study  was  begun  six  years  ago,  at  the  request 
of  the  Governor  of  Missouri,  and  was  based  primarily  on  a  study  of  the 
tax-supported  training  schools  of  that  state.  The  study,  though,  was 
extended  to  cover  the  teacher-training  problem  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  principles  laid  down  in  this  report  are  intended  to  be  generally 
applicable  elsewhere.  The  state  was  found  to  maintain  five  state  normal 
schools,  two  large  city  training  schools  in  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  City, 
and  a  school  of  education  at  the  University  of  Missouri.  Each  was 
under  the  direction  of  a  separate  board  of  trustees;  each  worked 
without  reference  to  the  work  of  the  others,  or  to  any  state  plan ;  there 
was  practically  no  state  oversight  or  control;  there  was  duplication  of 
effort  and  lack  of  extensions  into  new  lines;  the  standards  maintained 
varied  greatly,  and  for  the  normal  schools  were  lower  than  they  should 
be;  the  instructors  lacked  in  education  and  professional  preparation; 
and  the  type  of  teachers  sent  out  was  much  below  what  the  present-day 
needs  of  our  public  schools  demand.  The  situation  in  Missouri  was 
felt  to  be  typical,  and  not  essentially  different  from  that  found  in 
other  than  a  few  of  the  better  situated  of  our  states. 

To  meet  the  situation  in  Missouri,  and  elsewhere,  the  report 
recommends  a  unification  and  centralization  of  control  of  all  teacher- 
training  institutions  in  the  state,  and  under  one  central  board;  the 
extension  of  the  normal  schools  into  four-year  Teachers'  Colleges,  that 
they  may  give  a  better  type  of  training  for  teaching;  the  unification  of 
the  organization  and  work  of  these  Teachers'  Colleges  with  the  work 
of  the  School  of  Education  of  the  University  of  Missouri,  the  Teachers' 
Colleges  being  regarded  as  branches  of  the  University;  and  the 
ultimate  fusion  of  this  unified  control  with  that  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment of  Education,  after  it  has  been  better  developed.  The  report 
recognizes  that  individual  states  must  solve  the  problem  of  control 


'Bulletin    No.    14    of   the   Carnegie    Foundation   for    the   Advancement   of    Teaching. 
475  pages.     The  Carnegie  Foundation,  576  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City. 


58  REPORT    OP   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

in  accordance  with  local  development  and  conditions,  but  stresses  the 
importance  of  better  teaching  staffs  for  the  normal  schools,  a  lengthen- 
ing of  the  course  of  instruction  to  four  years,  the  granting  of  a  profes- 
sional degree  to  those  who  complete  it,  and  a  unified  control  and  coordi- 
nation of  the  work  of  the  teacher-training  institutions  of  'tke  state. 

THE  CREATION   OF  TEACHERS'  COLLEGES. 

The  Report  devotes  much  space  to  pointing  out  that  the  change  in  the 
character  of  American  education,  which  has  been  taking  place  slowly 
during  the  past  two  decades,  and  which  has  been  greatly  accelerated  by 
the  World  War,  is  a  change  that  involves  primarily  the  teacher.  This 
fact  the  American  people  have  up  to  now  largely  failed  to  grasp.  We 
have  said  much  about  education,  and  measured  school  success  in  terms 
of  new  school  buildings,  costly  equipment,  and  totals  expended,  but  have 
failed  to  grasp  the  fact  that  our  teachers  are  the  key  to  educational 
progress.  Expenditures  for  education  are  largely  meaningless  except 
as  expresed  in  the  superior  quality  and  skill  of  individual  teachers. 
One  result  of  the  war  we  have  just  ended  has  been  to  call  new  attention 
to  the  importance  of  the  teacher  in  our  national  welfare  and  progress. 
If  the  billions  we  have  spent  to  preserve  democracy  abroad  are  not  to 
be  wasted,  millions  must  now  be  spent  at  home  to  improve  the  character 
of  the  teachers  in  whose  hands  the  future  of  this  nation  largely,  rests. 
To  attract  the  best  minds  to  the  teaching  service,  men  and  women 
"fully  informed  as  to  what  the  rising  generation  may  become  and 
dedicated  to  such  achievement, ' '  we  must  train  them  thoroughly  for  the 
teaching  service  and  offer  to  them  "the  opportunity  to  attain  to  dis- 
tinguishing rewards  of  success  through  teaching  careers."  To  train 
them  as  the  future  demands  that  our  teachers  should  be  trained  calls 
for  the  contact,  during  the  period  of  their  training,  with  well-educated 
and  large-visioned  instructors,  and  to  attract  them  to  the  training  insti- 
tutions the  schools  must  offer  a  type  of  education  suited  to  the  new 
needs  of  a  rapidly  changing  world.  The  calling,  too,  must  offer  eco- 
nomic rewards  comparable  with  other  fields  of  public  and  private  serv- 
ice. A  new  type  of  teacher-training  institution  and  a  materially 
increased  salary  schedule  for  teachers  are  the  immediate  needs. 

It  seems  to  be  generally  admitted,  by  students  of  the  subject,  that 
the  older  type  of  two-year  normal  school  has  passed  its  maximum  period 
of  usefulness.  Technically  considered  it  was  a  trade  school,  giving  a 
short  vocational  preparation  for  but  one  line  of  service.  The  new 
conditions  we  face  and  the  new  needs  in  our  national  life  in  the  decades 
to  come  demand  a  new  type  of  teacher-training  institution — one  that 
will  give  a  much  broader  and  more  extended  type  of  professional  prepa- 
ration, and  better  fit  young  people  for  the  educational  service  of  the 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  TEACHER  TRAINING.  59 

state.  The  experience  in  such  states  as  Iowa  and  Colorado,  where 
the  state  normal  school  was  transformed  a  decade  or  more  ago  into  a 
four-year  Teachers'  College,  has  been  clearly  on  the  side  of  such 
extended  training.  The  experience  of  Ohio,  where  two  old  state  colleges 
were  transformed  into  combined  teachers'  colleges  and  colleges  offer- 
ing a  cultural  education,  has  been  equally  convincing.  Today  it  may 
be  said  to  be  an  accepted  principle  of  action  that  the  normal  schools, 
in  states  which  can  afford  .a  salary  schedule  for  teachers  which  will 
warrant  such  an  extension  of  training,  should  gradually  but  soon  be 
transformed  into  four-year  institutions,  offering  a  degree  to  their 
graduates,  and  known  as  Teachers'  Colleges.  This  transformation  has 
already  been  made  in  the  city  normal  schools  of  most  of  our  larger  north- 
ern cities,  city  Teachers'  Colleges  being  the  term  now  generally  used, 
and  the  possession  of  a  collegiate  degree  is  rapidly  becoming  a  prerequi- 
site for  a  position  as  teacher  in  our  larger  city  elementary  school  sys- 
tems. The  movement  for  such  a  transformation  is  also  well  under  way 
in  a  dozen  or  more  of  our  states. 

It  may  also  be  said  to  have  recently  come  to  be  accepted  as  a  belief 
on  the  part  of  students  of  the  subject  that  the  only  hope  of  again  filling 
our  normal  schools  with  students,  attracting  to  them  any  men  students, 
or  drawing  into  teaching  in  the  elementary  grades  that  superior  class 
of  women  who  now  go  to  the  colleges,  lies  in  the  expansion  upward 
and  outward  of  the  normal  school  work  so  as  to  offer  a  four-year  course 
for  elementary  teaching,  leading  to  a  professional  degree,  and  parallel 
with  it  at  least  a  two-year  Junior  College  course  of  general  training 
that  will  be  equally  open  to  those  who  intend  and  who  do  not  intend 
to  teach.  The  ultimate  development  probably  will  be  a  full  four-year 
college,  with  a  number  of  parallel  lines  of  work  but  with  preparation  for 
teaching  as  the  central  idea,  somewhat  after  the  Colorado,  Iowa,  and 
Ohio  plans.  Such  a  development  for  California,  as  we  shall  point  out 
in  the  next  chapter,  would  possess  very  decided  advantages  for  this 
state,  and  would  extend  Junior  College  and  collegiate  education  to  our 
people  in  a  broader  way  and  under  conditions  far  more  favorable  than 
ever  could  be  done  by  depending  on  one  central  institution  at  Berkeley. 

NORMAL  SCHOOL  CONTROL  AND   DEVELOPMENT   IN   CALIFORNIA. 

Assuming  that  this  state  decides  to  expand  our  normal  schools,  gradu- 
ally, into  four-year  Teachers'  Colleges,  and  to  give  them  power  to  con- 
fer a  collegiate  degree,  which  is  what  this  Committee  recommends,  the 
question  of  authorization  and  control,  as  well  as  grounds,  buildings, 
and  finance,  will  need  to  be  considered.  It  has  seemed  to  your  Com- 
mittee that  such  a  development  ought  to  take  place  gradually,  ought 
to  be  approved  at  each  step  by  some  central  board,  and  that  the  ulti- 


60  REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

mate  form  of  control  brought  about  probably  should  be  different  from 
that  for  the  earlier  stages  of  the  process.  The  development  which  the 
Committee  came  to  conceive  of  as  possible  and  desirable  for  this  state 
may  be  summarized,  briefly,  about  as  follows : 

Assuming  that  it  is  decided  that  the  normal  schools  of  California 
should  be  developed  gradually  into  four-year  Teachers'  Colleges,  with 
degree-granting  powers,  it  has  seemed  to  your  Committee  very  desirable 
that  uniform  legislation  should  not  be  enacted,  transforming  the  nor- 
.  mal  schools  of  the  state  into  Teachers '  Colleges,  and  also  that  the  differ- 
ent institutions  should  not  be  allowed  to  go  to  the  Legislature  and 
engage  in  a  scramble  for  funds  with  which  to  make  such  development. 
The  beginnings  of  control  have  already  been  made  for  this  state  by 
giving  the  State  Board  of  Education  power  to  regulate  the  admission 
requirements,  the  courses  of  instruction,  and  the  standards  for  gradu- 
ation of  the  normal  schools  of  the  state.  This  power,  your  Committee 
feels,  should  be  extended,  and  the  State  Board  of  Education  should  be 
given  authority  to  control  the  gradual  expansion  of  the  normal  schools 
of  the  state.  In  making  this  expansion,  possibilities  and  needs  in  laud 
and  buildings  and  in  teaching  equipment,  as  well  as  finances,  must  be 
taken  into  consideration. 

The  development,  too,  need  not  be  and  probably  should  not  be  uni- 
form, nor  should  the  final  results  be  uniform  either.  On  the  con- 
trary there  is  much  to  be  gained  by  a  partial  specialization  of  the 
future  Teachers'  Colleges  of  this  state.  For  example,  San  Francisco, 
as  well  as  San  Jose  and  Los  Angeles,  might  be  developed  into  institu- 
tions primarily  designed  to  train  a  high  grade  of  kindergarten  and  ele- 
mentary teacher  for  the  city  school  systems  of  this  state;  Fresno  and 
Chico  might  emphasize  agriculture  and  training  for  work  in  the 
consolidated  county  schools  which  should  be  developed  under  a  county- 
unit  system  of  school  administration ;  Arcata  might  give  special  atten- 
tion to  the  needs  of  the  small  school,  and  develop  a  less  specialized  type 
of  teacher;  some  one,  or  possibly  two,  of  the  schools  should  specialize 
on  the  preparation  of  teachers  for  atypical  children,  and  of  teachers 
for  special  types  of  education,  etc.  Other  specializations  could  be 
worked  out,  from  time  to  time,  as  needs,  equipment,  and  teaching 
force  would  permit.  The  Committee  feels  strongly  that  the  normal 
schools  or  Teachers'  Colleges  of  this  state  should  be  parts  of  a  broadly- 
conceived  state  system,  and  not  a  series  of  local  and  largely  unrelated 
schools,  each  pursuing  its  own  way,  and  that  there  is  no  need  for 
unnecessary  duplication  or  for  uniformity. 

To  this  end  the  Committee  recommends  that  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation be  given  control  by  law  over  the  further  development  and  organi- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TEACHER  TRAINING.  61 

zation  of  the  normal  schools  of  this  state ;  that  it  be  given  authority  to 
recommend  expansions  in  the  budgets  for  these  schools;  and  that  it 
not  try  to  develop  all  at  the  same  time,  or  at  the  same  speed;  that  it 
be  given  authority  to  approve  specializations  of  the  professional  work ; 
that  the  schools  ordinarily  should  be  advanced  to  three-year  schools 
first,  and  to  four-year  institutions  only  as  the  character  of  the  faculty 
and  their  salaries,  the  library  and  laboratory  equipment  at  hand  for 
collegiate  work,  and  the  needs  of  the  situation  warrant  such  develop- 
ment; and  that  the  State  Board  of  Education  be  given  authority  to 
say  when  such  development  shall  warrant  the  granting  of  professional 
collegiate  degrees.2  To  guide  the  State  Board  in  this  development  and 
to  supervise  it  there  would  need  to  be  created  a  Commissioner  for 
Teacher  Training,  as  a  part  of  the  State  Department  of  Education 
(Division  5),  as  recommended  in  Chapter  I,  page  27. 

ULTIMATE  TEACHERS'  COLLEGE  CONTROL. 

The  above  development  will  require  some  time,  probably  six  to  eight 
years,  and  possibly  a  decade,  though  a  beginning  should  be  made  now. 
When  this  evolution  is  complete  we  shall  have  a  series  of  eight  regional 
colleges — this  counts  the  institution  at  Los  Angeles,  as  it  seems  to  the 
Committee  that  it  should  be  included,  unless  it  is  to  be  developed  into 
a  second  state  university — each  primarily  professional  in  purpose,  but 
each  capable,  as  we  shall  point  out  in  the  next  chapter,  of  serving  the 
state  as  Junior  Colleges  and  institutions  of  collegiate  rank  as  well. 
That  California  will  have  need  for  this  number  of  Teachers'  Colleges, 
to  supply  the  state  with  trained  teachers,  there  can  be  little  question; 
that  each  of  these  institutions  could  do  Junior  College  work,  to  the 
mutual  advantage  of  the  communities  in  which  they  are  located  and  to 
themselves,  we  shall  point  out  later  on ;  and  that  a  state  with  the 
future  of  California,  possessed  as  it  is  of  few  private  colleges,3  could  also 
utilize  this  number  of  institutions  for  collegiate  work  in  part,  there  can 
also  be  but  little  question. 

By  the  time  this  development  has  been  brought  about,  if  not  before, 
some  very  definite  relationship  should  either  be  established  between  the 
State  University  and  these  colleges,  or  they  should  be  given  independent 
organization  and  control.  The  State  University  now  is  not  a  part  of  the 
state's  school  system,  being  provided  for  in  a  separate  section  (article 


'The  State  Board  of  Education  would  thus  occupy  a  position  somewhat  analogous 
to  the  Railroad  Commission,  granting'  "certificates  of  public  convenience  and  necessity" 
as  evidence  of  need,  and  ability  to  meet  such  need,  could  be  produced. 

'California's  increase  in  population  during  the  past  decade  (44.1  per  cent)  was 
exceeded  by  but  two  states  In  the  Union.  By  1930  this  state  should  have  a,  total 
population  of  over  five  millions  of  people,  and  approximately  a  million  school  children. 
Ohio,  with  a  total  population  of  but  little  more,  contains  42  colleges  and  universities. 
The  State  of  New  York,  with  a  population,  outside  of  Greater  New  York,  about 
equal  to  the  present  population  of  California,  has  24  colleges  and  universities,  -not 
counting-  any  in  New  York  City  or  Brooklyn. 


62  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON    EDUCATION. 

IX,  section  9)  of  the  state's  Constitution,  and  not  enumerated  in  article 
IX,  section  6,  as  one  of  the  parts  of  the  public  school  system  of  the 
state.  Had  the  provision  proposed  for  university  support  been  added 
to  the  Constitution  by  the  voters  at  the  last  general  election  it  would 
have  increased  still  further  the  independence  of  the  State  University 
from  both  the  public  school  system  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Legislature 
on  the  other.  The  State  University,  as  now  organized,  in  a  sense  con- 
stitutes ''a  state  within  a  state."  Though  not  organically  related  to 
the  public  school  system,  it  has  in  the  past  exercised  an  excessive  control 
over  the  high  schools,  and  has  shown  but  little  disposition  to  cooperate 
with  the  normal  schools. 

Two.  plans  for  future  Teachers'  College  control  have  seemed  possible 
to  the  •Committee.  From  one  point  of  view  it  has  seemed  to  your  Com- 
mittee that  this  organic  separation  ought  before  long  to  cease;  that 
the  Constitution  of  this  state  should  ultimately  be  so  amended  as  to 
make  the  State  University  a  part  of  the  state 's  public  school  system ; 
that  the  state  normal  schools,  when  developed  into  Teachers'  Colleges, 
should  be  definitely  related  to  the  School  of  Education  in  the  State 
University ;  that  the  degrees  conferred  in  all  state  institutions  should  be 
by  authority  of  one  common  board ;  and  that  the  higher  education  of  this 
state  should  be  placed  in  closer  cooperative  relations  with  the  public 
school  system  of  the  state.  Just  how  this  should  be  done  the  Commit- 
tee does  not  attempt  to  say,  leaving  such  a  relationship  to  the  future 
for  detailed  working  out.  In  Montana,  the  entire  public  school  system, 
from  kindergartens  to  universities,  has  been  placed  under  the  control 
of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  but  the  experiment  has  not  been  par- 
ticularly successful  and  the  plan  is  not  generally  favored  by  those 
who  have  given  most  study  to  the  subject.  In  Kansas  one  board  for 
all  the  higher  institutions  was  created,  with  still  less  satisfactory  results. 
In  Idaho  the  appointed  State  Commissioner  of  Education  and  the  State 
Board  of  Education  control  all  the  higher  institutions  of  the  state.  The 
whole  question  of  coordination  and  control  is  as  yet  in  the  experimental 
stage,  and  the  best  plan  for  this  state  probably  lies,  for  a  time  at  least, 
in  a  continuance  of  the  separate  institutional  boards,  for  business  and 
faculty  control,  with  some  form  of  cooperation  established  between  them 
and  the  other  parts  of  the  state  school  system  in  all  educational  matters. 

An  alternative  plan  considered  by  the  Committee,  and  for  this  state 
possibly  a  better  plan,  would  be  to  create,  by  law,  the  State  Teachers' 
College  of  California,  and  with  the  State  Board  of  Education  as  its  board 
of  regents.  This  institution  would  include  within  itself  all  the  normal 
schools  or  Teachers'  Colleges  now  or  hereafter  established  in  this  state. 
It  might  also  include  by  affiliation  all  institutions  in  this  state  engaged 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  TEACHER  TRAINING.  63 

in  any  form  of  teacher  training,  and  accredited  by  the  State  Board  of 
Education.  Each  state  normal  school  or  Teachers'  College  would  then 
exist  as  a  branch  of  the  State  Teachers'  College  of  California,  diplomas 
of  graduation  and  degrees  would  be  granted  by  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, and  all  teaching  credentials  issued  by  accredited  institutions,  in 
this  state  and  in  other  states,  would  be  under  the  supervision  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education.  This  plan  offers  a  simple  and  effective  means 
of  control,  and,  so  long  as  the  State  University  remains  outside  of  the 
public  school  system  of  the  state  as  enumerated  in  the  Constitution 
(article  IX,  section  6),  is  for  this  state  probably  the  better  one  to  follow. 

THE    EXAMINATION   AND  CERTIFICATION   OF  TEACHERS. 

Closely  connected  with  the  problem  of  teacher  training  is  the  question 
of  the  examination  and  certification  of  teachers  for  the  public  schools  of 
the  state.  It  may  be  stated  to  be  the  growing  practice  of  our  American 
states  to  change  these  two  functions  from  local  to  state  control,  and  to 
make  examinations  uniform  and  certificates  valid  throughout  the  state. 
The  written  examinations  for  the  grammar  grade  certificate  now  given 
by  each  county  in  this  state,  and  taken  by  but  few  persons,4  are  a  waste 
of  time  and  effort  and  money.  The  control  of  these  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  State  Board  of  Education,  and  turned  over  to  the  Examin- 
ing, Certificating,  and  Pensioning  Division  (No.  6 — See  Chapter  I)  to 
handle  for  the  state  as  a  whole.  The  examinations  should  be  made  uni- 
form, be  given  at  eight  or  ten  places  in  the  state,  on  certain  dates ;  the 
papers  should  be  graded  at  Sacramento ;  and  uniform  credentials  should 
be  issued  to  those  who  pass  and  upon  these  the  county  educational 
authorities  would  be  expected  to  issue  grammar  grade  certificates.  If 
the  form  of  county  educational  organization  recommended  in  Chapter  II 
should  be  adopted,  such  a  change  in  the  source  of  the  examination 
would  be  very  desirable,  as  the  new  type  of  lay  county  boards  of  edu- 
cation proposed  would  not  be  competent  to  give  such  examinations,  and 
the  county  supervisory  officers  ought  not  to  do  so.  A  fundamental  prin- 
ciple in  educational  administration  is  that  those  who  supervise  instruc- 
tion in  the  schools  ought  not  to  examine  and  certificate  those  who  are  to 
be  employed  to  teach  under  them.  Regardless,  though,  of  whether  or 
not  the  county-unit  form  of  education  organization  be  adopted  for  this 
state,  the  examination  and  certification  of  teachers  ought  to  be  changed 
into  a  state  function,  and  placed  under  the  control  of  the  State  Board 
of  Education,  so  far  as  can  <be  done  in  conformity  with  the  demands 
of  section  7  of  article  IX  of  the  Constitution. 


4In  1919-20,  applicants  appeared  for  these  examinations  in  only  about  two-thirds 
of  the  counties,  and  only  186  grammar-grade  certificates  were  granted  by  the  39 
counties  issuing  them  on  examination.  Of  the  186  issued,  78  were  Issued  by  5  counties. 


64  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

BETTER   PLAN   FOR   THE  CERTIFICATION   OF  TEACHERS   NEEDED. 

The  entire  plan  for  the  certification  of  teachers  in  this  state  has 
seemed  to  the  Committee  to  be  in  need  of  careful  revision,  with  a  view 
to  the  creation  of  a  better-graded  and  more  rational  state  certificating 
plan.  This  the  Committee  did  not  attempt  to  do,  but  it  recommends 
that  a  careful  study  of  the  subject  to  be  made  and  a  comprehensive 
state  plan  be  prepared  which  will  correct  the  defects  of  the  system  now 
in  use,  and  that  such  plan  be  submitted  to  the  present  or  a  subsequent 
session  of  the  Legislature  for  approval.  The  defects  of  the  present 
plan,  in  the  large,  are: 

1.  The  diploma  of  graduation  from  a  normal  school,  or  a  teaching 
credential  from  a  university,  ought  not  to  be  unlimited  in  character, 
until  after  trial,  when  it  should  be  changed  into  a  more  permanent  form 
only  on  suitable  evidence  of  successful  teaching  and  personal  growth. 

2.  The  life  diploma  in  this  state  means  virtually  nothing  except  that 
the  holder  has  taught  somewhere  and  in  some  kind  of  a  school  for  48 
months,  at  least  21  of  which  must  have  been  in  California.    No  require- 
ments as  to  education  or  professional  growth  or  further  study  are  made, 
and,  instead  of  singling  out  the  most  successful  and  most  highly  profes- 
sional teachers  in  this  state,  the  diploma  practically  means  nothing  edu- 
cationally.    It  ought  either  to  be  reformed  and  made  to  mean  some- 
thing or  else  entirely  abandoned. 

3.  The  certificates  granted,  of  each  grade,  are  uniform  as  to  value, 
whereas  a  graded  series — (1)  trial,  (2)  full,  and  (3)  permanent — ought 
to  be  evolved  for  each  type,  the  step  from  each  to  the  next  higher  in  the 
series  to  be  accompanied  by  further  evidence  as  to  professional  study 
and  teaching  success. 

The  Committee  would  recommend,  therefore,  that  the  State  Board  of 
Education,  acting  through  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 
be  requested  to  consider  the  entire  matter  carefully,  and  to  report  to  this 
or  a  succeeding  Legislature  a  revision  of  the  certification  laws  of  this 
state  such  as  will  remedy  the  above-mentioned  defects,  and  create  for 
this  state  a  well-graded  series  of  certificates,  each  higher  one  to  be 
based  en  added  professional  preparation  and  evidence  of  successful 
experience.  The  Committee  would  also  suggest  that  a  graded  series  of 
supervisory  certificates  be  added  to  the  present  list,  and  it  would  also 
recommend  that  State  Reading  Circle  work,  after  the  plan  which  has 
for  so  long  been  successful  in  Indiana  and  other  middle-western  states, 
be  added  as  a  means  for  the  further  professional  education  and  training 
of  teachers  in  service,  and  be  made  in  some  way  required  of  all  teachers 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  TEACHER  TRAINING.  65 

as  a  condition  for  continuance  in  the  teaching  service.  More  than  half 
the  states  of  the  Union  now  employ  Reading  Circle  work  for  having 
teachers  in  service  keep  up  with  new  professional  ideas. 

SUMMARY  OF   FINDINGS  AND   RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In  summary  form  the  findings  and  recommendations  of  the  Committee 
are  as  follows: 

1.  California's    early    attention    to    the    teacher    training    problem, 
together  with  its  high  salary  schedule  and  attractiveness  as  a  residential 
state,  have  given  it  one  of  the  highest  percentages  of  normal-trained 
teachers  of  any  state  in  the  Union. 

2.  During  the  past  four  years  many  of  the  best  trained  teachers  have 
left  the  schools,  and  the  normal  schools  have  lost  seriously  in  attendance. 

3.  Since  the  War  there  has  been  a  marked  shifting  in  the  attendance 
of  young  people  from  the  normal  schools  to  the  colleges,  and  this  prom- 
ises to  be  permanent.    The  normal  schools  no  longer  attract. 

4.  Recent  studies  of  the  teacher-shortage  and  teacher-training  prob- 
lems all  point  in  the  direction  of  enlarging  the  work  of  our  normal 
schools,  changing  them  in  character,  and  unifying  their  control. 

5.  The  War  has  emphasized  the  importance  of  the  teacher,  and  a  new 
type  of  teacher-training  institution  seems  demanded  generally  to  meet 
the  enlarged  educational  needs  of  the  future.    With  the  recent  marked 
increase  in  salaries,  too,  new  demands  in  teacher  preparation  can  well 
be  made. 

6.  The  Committee  recommends  the  gradual  extension  of  our  normal 
schools  into  four-year  Teachers'  Colleges,  to  meet  the  new  educational 
needs  in  teacher-training,  and  with  power  to  grant  a  professional  degree. 

7.  These  institutions  should  combine  Junior  College  work  with  teacher 
training,  as  is  sketched  further  in  Chapter  IV. 

8.  Such  extension  should  not  be  made  all  at  once,  or  uniformly  for 
all  schools,  but  gradually,  as  budgets  and  instructing  force  and  equip- 
ment may  warrant,  and  under  the  supervision  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education. 

9.  To  guide  such  a  development  a  Commissioner  for  Teacher  Training 
should  be  provided  for,  before  long,  and  as  a  part  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment of  Education,  as  sketched  in  Chapter  I.     Such  a  Commissioner 
would  be  needed  also  to  oversee  the  work,  should  the  Smith-Towner 
bill5  pass  Congress.6 

10.  The  future  calls  for  a  rearrangement  of  relationships  between 
the  State  University  and  the  public  school  system,  and  particularly 


5See  footnote  2,  Chapter  I,  page  13. 

6When  the  Smith-Towner  Bill  passes  Congress,  as  it  seems  probable  that  it  will 
sooner  or  later,  this  state  would  receive  approximately  $350,000  annually  from  the 
Federal  Government  for  aid  in  teacher-training— an  amount  that  would  probably  cover 
future  increases  in  cost  for  our  teacher-training  institutions. 

5—7789 


66'  REPORT   OP   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON    EDUCATION. 

between  these  new  Teachers'  Colleges  and  the  University.  "Whether  this 
can  be  arranged  for  best  by  a  coordinating  board,  by  consolidation  under 
one  board,  or  by  some  other  plan,  the  Committee  leaves  to  the  future  to 
decide. 

11.  The  examination  and  certification  of  teachers  are  primarily  state 
functions,  and  should  be  transferred  from  the  county  authorities  to  the 
control  of  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

12.  The  certification  laws  of  this  state  are  in  need  of  a  careful  revision, 
with  a  view  to  creating  a  graded  and  a  more  rational  plan.    Supervisory 
certificates,  and  some  form  of  Reading  Circle  work,  are  recommended 
to  be  added. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  J  UNIOK  COLLEGE.  67 

CHAPTER  IV. 

HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE. 

OUR  HIGH  SCHOOL  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  first  American  high  school  was  established  in  Boston,  in  1821. 
The  development  of  this  new  type  of  free  popular  higher  school  was  for 
a  time  slow,  and  was  confined  entirely  to  New  England,  New  York,  and 
Pennsylvania.  By  1850  there  were  31  free  public  high  schools  in  the 
United  States,  the  dates  of  the  establishment  of  which  seem  certain,  and 
of  these  31  but  two  were  outside  of  this  North  Atlantic  group  of  states. 
One  had  been  founded  in  New  Orleans,  in  1843,  and  one  in  Detroit, 
in  1844.  In  1858  the'  first  public  high  school  in  California  was  estab- 
lished in  San  Francisco,  and,  'excepting  two  schools  in  Texas,  this  was 
the  first  public  high  school  to  be  founded  Avest  of  St.  Louis.  By  1885, 
when  the  public  high  school  movement  had  finally  gotten  well  under  way 
in  that  part  of  the  United  States  lying  east  of  the  Missouri  River,  there 
were  still  but  twelve  public  high  schools  in  California.  The  year  before, 
1884,  the  State  University  began  the  voluntary  inspection  and  accredit- 
ing of  the  few  high  schools  of  the  state,  partly  with  a  view  to  the  im- 
provement of  their  work,  and  partly  to  stimulate  their  further  develop- 
ment. A  small  population,  and  the  requirement  that  high  schools  must 
be  district  affairs  and  supported  wholly  locally,  for  long  confined  them 
to  the  few  cities  able  to  maintain  them. 

The  real  beginning  of  high  school  development  in  this  state  dates 
from  the  passage  of  the  Union  High  School  law,  in  1891,  and  the  stimu- 
lating influence  of  the  opening  of  Stanford  University  this  same  year. 
By  1890  but  24  district  high  schools  had  been  developed.  The  new  law 
of  1891  permitted,  for  the  first  time,  of  the  union  of  school  districts  to 
form  union  high  schools,  thus  providing  for  their  organization  in  other 
than  city  territory.  In  four  years  following  the  enactment  of  the  law 
of  1891  the  number  of  high  schools  increased  from  24  to  98,  and  in  twelve 
years  to  143.  The  limit  in  the  number  of  possible  schools  under  this 
law  having  been  about  reached  by  1900,  and  the  burden  for  mainte- 
nance on  many  union  districts  being  very  heavy,  an  amendment  to  the 
state  constitution  was  proposed,  in  1902,  which  would  permit  of  the  in- 
corporation of  the  high  school  into  the  state  school  system,  and  the  levy- 
ing of  a  state  high  school  tax,  separate  and  distinct  from  the  tax  for 
elementary  schools.  This  was  approved  by  the  people  by  a  very  decided 
majority,  and  the  first  state  support  for  the  high  schools  was  made  by  the 
Legislature  of  1903.  At  first  a  property  tax  of  1|  cents  on  the  $100  was 
levied,  but  two  years  later  (1905)  this  was  changed,  to  bring  it  into  con- 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON    EDUCATION. 


LOCATION  07 

THE  EiaE  SCHOOLS 

OF 

CALIFORHIA 

1919-20 


FIG.  13.     HIGH  SCHOOL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  CALIFORNIA  BY  1920. 

There  is  now  at 'least  one  high  school  in  every  county,  except  Mono  anil 
Alpine.  Duplicate  high  schools  in  cities  not  indicated  on  the  map.  Total 
number  of  schools  in  1919-20  was  318. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE.  69 

formity  with  the  state  aid  for  elementary  schools,  to  a  state  grant  equal 
to  $15  for  each  pupil  in  average  daily  attendance  in  the  high  schools  of 
the  state  the  preceding  year.  At  this  sum  it  remained  until  the  adoption 
of  Constitutional  Amendment  No.  16,  at  the  last  general  election,  which 
fixes  the  state  aid  for  the  high  schools  in  the  future  at  $30  per  pupil  in 
average  daily  attendance.  The  county  high  school  tax  law  of  1916, 
requiring  a  county  high  school  tax  of  $60  per  pupil,  in  addition  to  state 
aid,  laid  firmly  the  financial  foundations  of  our  secondary  school  system. 
Under  the  stimulus  of  the  state  aid  received  the  number  of  high 
schools  developed  from  143  in  1903  to  318  in  1919-20,  employing  5,794 
teachers,  and  enrolling  162,650  pupils.  Only  two  counties,  Alpine  and 
Mono,  are  now  without  a  high  school,  and  the  state  may  now  be  said  to 
be  fairly  well  supplied  with  secondary  school  advantages.  The  map  on 
page  68  shows  the  location  of  the  high  schools  of  California  in  1919-20, 
and  the  chart  on  page  70  shows  the  actual  and  estimated  future  enroll- 
ment in  the  high  schools  of  this  state. 

SPECIAL  FEATURES  OF  OUR  HIGH  SCHOOL  DEVELOPMENT. 

Unlike  most  other  states,  California  has,  since  1879,  carefully  seg- 
regated the  funds  to  be  used  in  maintaining  elementary  schools  from 
those  needed  to  maintain  high  schools.  Not  only  are  the  state  and 
county  tax  levies  different,  but  the  funds  must  be  kept  separate  and 
paid  out  on  separate  warrants  by  the  high  school  districts.  Begun  by 
the  Constitution  of  1879  from  motives  unfriendly  to  high  school  develop- 
ment, this  has  worked  out  to  the  distinct  advantage  of  both  high  and 
elementary  schools.  Instead  of,  as  in  most  eastern  states,  putting  all 
funds  together  and  then  robbing  the  elementary  schools  to  maintain  a 
fine  high  school,  each  part  of  the  system  in  this  state  has  had  its  own 
funds.  While  we  have  been  forced  to  raise  larger  sums  for  public  school 
purposes,  the  elementary  school  funds  have  not  been  depleted,  and 
excellent  elementary  schools  have  in  consequence  been  provided  and 
maintained.  Still  more,  the  large  per  capita  wealth  of  California  has 
made  it  easy  for  this  state  to  maintain  good  schools  of  both  types. 

Unlike  nearly  all  other  states,  too,  California  early  began  to  require 
special  education  and  professional  preparation  of  the  teachers  for  its 
high  schools.  Accompanying  the  Union  High  School  law  of  1891  was 
another  law  creating  the  high  school  certificate,  to  be  required  thereafter 
of  those  desiring  to  teach  in  the  high  schools  of  this  state.  At  first  to  be 
had  only  on  examination  before  County  Boards  of  Education,  in  1903 
graduation  from  the  State  University  or  from  Stanford  University  was 
permitted,  if  the  course  had  included  certain  professional  studies,  to  be 


70 


REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


500.000 


450.000 


400.000 


550.000 


300.000 


150.000 


200.000 


150.000 


100.000 


50,006 


I1' io.  14.     ACTUAL  AND  ESTIMATED  GROWTH  IN  HIGH  SCHOOL  ENKOI.LMKNT. 
Actual,  1900  to  1920;  estimated,  1920  to  1935. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE.  71 

substituted  for  the  written  examination,  and  in  1907  the  county  written 
examination  was  entirely  abolished.  In  1905  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation added  a  year  of  graduate  study  to  the  previous  requirements, 
and  increased  the  amount  of  professional  study  required.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Southern  California,  Pomona  College,  and  Mills  College  in 
this  state,  as  well  as  a  number  of  the  leading  universities  of  the  United 
States,  have  since  been  accredited  for  this  \vork. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  California,  from  the  first,  has  kept  clearly  in 
view  the  creation  of  a  high  grade  of  secondary  school.  The  finance  has 
been  guaranteed,  and  competent  teachers  for  it  have  been  assured  by 
demanding  new  standards  of  training.  To  these  two  features  in  our 
school  legislation  is  due  much  of  the  present  high  quality  of  our  Cali- 
fornia high  schools  and  the  pride  our  citizens  take  in  them.  Still  more, 
only  such  high  grade  of  secondary  school  would  have  satisfied  the  type 
of  educated  citizenship  found  throughout  this  state.' 

SECONDARY  SCHOOL  NEEDS  FOR  THE  FUTURE. 

As  was  stated  above,  the  legislation  up  to  the  present  has  resulted  in 
fairly  well  supplying  this  state  with  high  schools  of  the  regular  four- 
year  general  type,  and  they  stand  today  on  a  good  financial  and  pro- 
fessional footing.  The  needs  of  our  high  school  for  the  future,  it  has 
seemed  to  this  Committee,  accordingly  lie  more  along  the  line  of  the 
extension  of  the  high  school  to  meet  new  needs. 

In  our  cities  there  is  much  need  for  the  development  of  additional 
vocational  schools  and  high  schools  of  commerce,  to  meet  the  new  voca- 
tional and  commercial  demands  of  this  state.  The  new  attitude  taken 
toward  such  schools  by  the  laboring  classes  makes  their  development 
(••specially  desirable  now.  The  new  part-time  education  law  has  created 
a  demand  for  much  new  instruction  suited  to  the  needs  of  a  new  class 
of  pupils  now  for  the  first  time  brought  into  the  high  schools  by  the 
extension  of  the  compulsory  attendance  age  limits  from  sixteen  to 
eighteen.  Similarly  the  Smith-Hughes  National  Vocational  Education 
Act  (1917)  has  made  possible  the  development  of  a  new  type  of  higher 
grade  vocational  and  commercial  education,  to  meet  the  new  needs  of  the 
future  of  our  country  in  trade  and  commerce.  If  this  state  is  to  attain 
to  the  prominence  in  industry  and  in  domestic  and  foreign  commerce 
which  we  hope  for  it,  our  cities  must  give  larger  attention  than  is  now 
done  to  the  development  of  vocational  and  commercial  high  schools,  com- 
parable with  those  found  in  the  mast  progressive  trade  cities  of  Europe. 

In  the  agricultural  sections  of  this  state  there  is  also  need  for  a  more 
general  development  of  agricultural  courses  in  our  high  schools,  and 
likewise  for  the  establishment  of  quite  a  number  of  the  so-called  County 


72  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

Agricultural  High  Schools,  which  have  rendered  such  service  in  provid- 
ing a  high  type  of  agricultural  and  home-life  education  for  boys  and 
girls  in  such  states  as  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Maryland,  Georgia,  and 
elsewhere.  These  are  well-equipped  high  schools,  supplied  with  ade- 
quate buildings  and  land,  in  which  the  courses  of  instruction  give  special 
emphasis  to  agriculture,  horticulture,  dairying,  stock  raising,  poultry 
raising,  marketing,  home  economics  and  other  needs  of  a  high-grade 
agricultural  life.  A  county  is  about  the  smallest  unit  for  their  forma- 
tion and  maintenance,  and  the  general  establishment  of  the  county  unit 
would  make  their  foundation  a  simple  matter. 

In  all  sections  of  this  state,  too,  once  the  county-unit  form  of  edu- 
cational organization  has  been  applied,  and  consolidated  elementary 
schools  have  been  developed,  there  should  be  an  extension  of  the  inter- 
mediate or  Junior  High  School  idea  by  the  addition  of  ninth-grade  and 
probably  tenth-grade  instruction  to  many  of  these  consolidated  schools. 
Still  more,  there  is  need,  in  a  number  of  our  cities  and  possibly  else- 
where, for  the  upward  extension  of  the  secondary  school  to  include  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  years,  and  to  form  what  are  commonly 
known  as  Junior  Colleges.  It  was  to  this  last  aspect  of  the  problem  of 
secondary  school  needs  that  the  Committee  devoted  much  of  its  investi- 
gation, and  upon  which  it  largely  concentrated  two  of  its  hearings.  It 
seemed  to  the  Committee  that  this  is  the  most  acute  and  important 
aspect  of  the  secondary  school  problem  in  California  today. 

JUNIOR   COLLEGE    DEVELOPMENT   IN    CALIFORNIA. 

The  Legislature,  in  1907,  first  permitted  any  four-year  high  school  to 
add  two  more  years  and  develop  Junior  College  work.  .At  first  little  was 
done  in  the  matter.  In  1911  the  State  University  rearranged  its  col- 
legiate instruction  into  a  Lower  Division,  consisting  of  the  Freshmen 
and  Sophomore  years,  and  an  Upper  Division,  consisting  of  the  Junior 
and  Senior  years,  and  in  doing  so  closely  integrated  the  work  of  the 
Lower  Division  with  that  of  the  high  school  below.  The  need  for  dupli- 
cating courses  in  college  which  had  been  taken  in  the  high  school  was 
eliminated,  while  certain  subjects  not  taken  in  the  high  schooTwere 
required  in  the  Lower  Division  work.  The  whole  led  to  the  virtual 
establishment  of  a  unified  six-year  high  school  and  college  course -of 
study,  leading  at  its  completion  to  a  so-called  Junior  Certificate.  The 
University  of  Chicago  had  earlier  perfected  a  similar  plan,  and  upon 
the  completion  of  the  course  conferred  a  diploma  and  the  degree  of 
Associate  in  Arts.  In  1920  Stanford  University  made  a  rearrangement 
and  division  of  its  instruction  somewhat  similar  to  that  worked  out  at 
the  State  University. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE.  73 

In  1911  the  first  six-year  high  school  in  this  state  was  established  at 
Fresno;  Santa  Barbara  and  Los  Angeles  began  such  schools  in  1912; 
Fullerton  and  Bakersfield  in  1913  ;  and  Long  Beach  in  1914.  Still  others 
were  established  before  1918,  when  14  such  institutions  reported  an  en- 
rollment of  518  boys  and  1043  girls.  In  1916,  the  Legislature  revised 
the  earlier  law,  and  provided  (section  1750&  of  the  Political  Code)  for 
the  creation  of  such  Junior  Colleges  in  any  high  school  district  having  an 
assessed  valuation  of  $3,000,000.  The  courses  of  study  were  to  satisfy 
the  requirements  for  the  Junior  Certificate  at  the  State  University,  all 
such  courses  were  required  to  be  approved  by  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, and  some  state  and  county  aid  was  granted  by  including  all 
pupils  attending  such  courses  under  both  the  $15  state  and  the  regular 
county  average  daily  attendance  grants  made  to  regular  high  schools. 
The  War  checked  this  Junior  College  development,  and  a  few  schools 
which  had  been  begun  discontinued  part  of  their  work,  but  conditions 
since  the  close  of  the  War  have  given  new  emphasis  to  the  need  for 
their  further  development.  The  same  need  has  been  felt  in  states  other 
than  California,  and  in  Wisconsin.  Illinois,  Ohio,  New  York,  Massachu- 
setts, and  elsewhere  the  Junior  College  question  is  now  under  more  or 
leps  active  consideration. 

THE   NEW   INTEREST  IN    HIGHER   EDUCATION. 

Since  the  close  of  the  World  War  the  demand  for  higher  education 
has  exceeded  anything  this  country  has  ever  before  known,  and  there 
is  good  reason  to  think  that  this  new  demand  will  remain  permanently. 
The  War  called  new  attention,  in  all  lands,  to  the  need  for  more  educa- 
tion, and  particularly  to  the  need  for  higher  and  technical  training. 
The  educational  work  of  the  Aftny  gave  special  emphasis  to  this  with 
American,  French,  and  British  troops.  All  over  the  world  new 
expenditures  for  education  have  recently  been  undertaken,  and  all  over 
the  world  the  secondary  schools  and  universities  have  experienced  a 
marked  increase  over  pre-war  levels  in  the  number  of-'students  enrolled. 
In  England,  for  example,  despite  very  heavy  war  burdens,  the  expendi- 
tures for  education  during  the  past  two  years  have  more  than  doubled, 
while  since  1914  they  have  practically  trebled.1  In  France,  Canada, 
South  Africa,  Australia,  and  elsewhere  the  same  new  interest  in  and 
increased  expenditures  for  education  have  been  noted.  The  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Education  reports  that  last  year  (1919-20) 
there  were  1.735,619  young  people  in  the  13.951  public  high  schools  in 
the  United  States,  as  against  1,373,661  in  1913-14,  while  statistics  gath- 


~  "Total  expenses  in  1909-10  were  £13.100,000,  In  round  numbers  :  '"  191'^4  ^J^L 
approximately    £15.000,000;    and    in    1918-19    they   were    £19,334,705.     The    budget 
approved  for  1920-21  calls  for  £45,755,567. 


74 


REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


ered  for  college  enrollment  to  the  end  of  October  (1920)  show  prac- 
tically every  college  and  state  university  in  the  United  States  to  have 
a  markedly  increased  enrollment  over  the  year's  total  enrollment  (sum- 
mer session  not  included)  for  five  years  ago.  A  few  comparisons  will 
illustrate. 

TABLE   II. 
Increase  in  College  Enrollment. 


Institution 

Total 
Enrollment 
11)15 

Enrollment 
to  Oct. 
1920 

University  of  California  -  _    

6434 

11  154 

University  of  Illinois      _                 

5439 

8270 

University  of  Iowa           -      -  _         __ 

2680 

3629 

University  of  Michigan  

5,833 

6608 

University  of  Minnesota       

4,484 

7,438 

University  of  Nebraska    __ 

3,832 

4,388 

University  of  Ohio    -                   

4,599 

7156 

University  of  Texas        _                         -  __ 

2,574 

3786 

University  of  Washington       _              

3,249 

5200 

University  of  Wisconsin  ._ 

5,128 

7,004 

Harvard  University    _       

5,226 

5,481 

Columbia  University            _    

12,249 

16.000 

University  of  Chicago  -  __ 

3,793 

5,728 

Stanford  University  

2,054 

2,489 

In  California,  which  since  1891  has  shown  a  marked  interest  in 
high  school  and  collegiate  training,  the  enrollment  in  both  the  high 
schools  of  this  state  and  the  State  University  has  increased  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  Figure  14,  page  70,  gave  the  increase  in  enrollment  and 
graduations  for  the  high  schools  of  this  state,  and  the  chart  opposite 
(Fig.  15)  gives  similar  information  for  the  State  University.  Con- 
tinuing the  curves,  based  on  the  growth  in  the  number  of  public  high 
school  graduates  only,  and  the  growth  in  enrollment  at  the  State  Uni- 
versity, counting  only  the  colleges  at  Berkeley  and  omitting  summer 
school  and  extension  classes,  the  Berkeley  colleges  alone  would  have 
12,500  students  by  1925,  16,500  by  1930,  and  20,000  by  19352.  Such 
a  great  number  of  largely  undergraduate  students  in  one  place  can  not 
be  properly  housed,  fed,  cared  for,  supervised,  or  taught,  and  such  a 


Irrhe  University  of  Minnesota,  faced  by  a  similar  growth  and  congestion,  recently 
appointed  a  Survey  Commission  to  examine  into  the  whole  question  of  the  growth  and 
needs  of  the  University  during  the  next  quarter  century.  With  an  enrollment  t'm- 
1918-19  of  5,137,  and  296  graduate  students,  it  was  calculated  that  the  University 
would  have  to  care  for 'the  following  numbers  of  students: 


Year 

Freshmen 

Undergraduates 

Graduates 

1924-25              -  

3,000 

8,300 

460 

1929-30                  

3,500 

10,000 

550 

1934-35           

4,000 

11,500 

610 

1°39-40                                 

•l.^iO 

13,300 

740 

1944-45  .. 

5,000 

15,000. 

830 

HIGH  SCHOOL  AM)  JUNIOR  COM. EC R. 


25.000 


5.000 


2,500 


FIG.  ir>.     ACTI-AI.  AXD  ESTIMATED  FUTUKE  GROWTH  OF  THE  COLLEGES  AT  BERKELEY. 

Colleges  located  at  I'..  rkt>l.  y  almi"  rounted.  and  all  extension  and  summer 
term  students  omitted.  I>ata  taken  from  the  I'rrxiilrnt'fi  HP  port  of  the  Pnivrrsity 
of  (California.  Segregation  of  l^o\ver  I>ivision  students  from  l"pp«'r  I>ivision  stu- 
dents before  1912  calculated  on  basis  of  present  ratios. 


76'  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

number  ought  not  be  congregated  together  in  one  place.  Since  Cali- 
fornia has  few  endowed  or  church  colleges,  and  all  these  are  limited  in 
resources  and  have  now  almost  as  many  students  as  their  funds  will 
permit  them  to  receive,  the  main  dependence  for  the  future  growth  in 
higher  education  in  this  rapidly  growing  state  must  rest  upon  the  State 
University,  and  upon  such  branch  state  colleges  as  the  Legislature  may 
create. 

A  PROGRAM   FOR  CALIFORNIA   DEVELOPMENT. 

To  concentrate  such  numbers  of  students  as  will  in  the  future  seek 
collegiate  education  in  this  state  largely  at  one  place,  the  Committee 
felt  would  be  both  expensive  and  decidedly  unwise,  considered  from 
almost  every  point  of  view.  To  develop  one  or  more  duplicate  State 
Universities  would  cost  still  more,  because  the  duplicate  librar}"  and 
laboratory  equipment  is  very  expensive,  and  often  almost  impossible. 
After  careful  consideration  of  the  whole  question  the  Committee  felt 
that  any  wise  policy  for  the  development  of  higher  educational  advan- 
tages in  this  state  calls  for  a  scattering  of  the  students  in  their  earlier 
years,  while  they  are  in  need  of  closer  supervision  for  both  their  studies 
and  their  morals,  and  a  concentration  of  the  upper  and  more  expensive 
work  in  one  high-grade  university.  Based  on  such  conclusion,  and  in 
line  with  the  previous  recommendations  as  to  teacher-training,  the  Com- 
mittee would  recommend  the  following  as  a  policy  for  the  future  devel- 
opment of  higher  education  in  this  state : 

1.  The  gradual  development  of  the  State  Normal  Schools  into  four- 
year  Teachers'  Colleges,  with  power  to  confer  a  degree,  as  outlined  in 
the  previous  chapter. 

2.  The  development  at  first  of  a  Junior  College  in  connection  with 
each  Normal  School,-  unless  there  should  be  good  reasons  for  not  dupli- 
cating a  previous  city  Junior  College  development,   covering  Lower 
Division  work  much  as  at  the  State  University,  and  parallel  with  the 
professional  courses  for  the  training  of  teachers. 

3.  The  gradual  extension  of  the  Junior  College  work  of  the  Normal 
Schools,  as  well  as  the  professional  courses,  at  first  to  a  three-,  and  later 
to  a  four-year  basis  with  degrees,  thus  developing  in  this  state  a  number 
of  regional  state  colleges,  though  with  the  Upper  Division  work  confined 
to  a  small  number  of  lines,  of  a  type  that  can  be  done  well  on  a  limited 
equipment,  and  of  a  kind  that  will  be  most  needed  in  the  training  of 
teachers  for  both  the  elementary  and  secondary  schools. 

4.  The  segregation  of  the  Lower  Division  work  at  the  State  University 
into  a  Junior  College,  standing  somewhat  in  the  rank  of  a  preparatory 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE. 


77 


department  for  the  real  university,3  which  would  properly  begin  at  the 
junior  year  and  continue  into  the  graduate  work,  and  largely  as  a 
group  of  professional  schools  and  colleges. 


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FIG.    16.     SHOWING  PROPOSED   REORGANIZATION   OF   OUR   SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

The  present  public  school  system,  including  one  year  of  Kindergarten,  is  13 
years  long,  and  the  University  covers  seven  years,  including  the  professional  work. 
It  is  proposed  gradually  to  extend  the  public  school  system  two  years-  by  adding 
to  it  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  years  of  work,  taking  these  from  the  University. 
Then,  by  changing  the  University  into  a  group  of  professional  schools,  beginning 
at  the  Junior  Year,  general  college  work  would  end  at  20  and  professional  work 
be  completed  at  23  or  24,  thus  getting  the  student  into  life  work  one  to  two  years 
earlier  than  now. 

5.  The  concentration  of  all  graduate  work,  for  teachers  as  well  as 
for  other  professional  lines,  at  the  one  central  State  University,  there 
to  be  gathered  the  most  expensive  equipment  in  libraries,  laboratories, 
and  faculty. 

6.  The  development  in  connection  with  the  high  schools  of  a  serif? 
of  supplemental  Junior  Colleges,  in  addition  to  those  in  connection  with 


Thirty  years  ago  the  colleges  of  this  country  went  through  a  similar  upward 
evolution.  Then  every  college  and  state  university  maintained  a  two-year  Prepara- 
tory School,  covering  the  present  eleventh  and  twelfth  years  of  the  public  high  schools. 
Today  practically  all  except  a  few  of  the  church  colleges  have  abandoned  their 
preparatory  departments,  and  rely  upon  the  public  and  private  high  schools  for  the 
training  of  their  students. 


78  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  Teachers'  Colleges,  at  a  number  of  well-located  points  in  this  state, 
these  also  to  give  Lower  Division  work,  and  their  students  to  pass  to 
the  Teachers'  Colleges  or  to  the  State  University  for  further  collegiate 
or  professional  work. 

7.  The  present  time,  when  the  people  have  refused  to  approve 
Constitutional  Amendment  No.  12,  which  proposed  a  large  tax  for  the 
State  University,  and  the  crowded  conditions  there,  makes  this  a  critical 
time  in  our  higher  educational  development,  and  the  immediate  formu- 
lation of  a  definite  state  policy  for  the  future  is  demanded.  By 
developing  the  Junior  Colleges,  as  is  recommended  in  this  Report,  a 
large  and  expensive  and  largely  unsatisfactory  development  in  buildings 
and  teaching  staff  at  Berkeley  can  be  avoided,  and  Lower  Division 
education  in  this  state  can  at  the  same  time  be  carried  to  different  parts 
of  the  state  and  to  more  young  people  by  the  development  of  a  number 
of  smaller  and  less  expensive  units.  This  Committee  therefore  recom- 
mends that  the  Legislature,  at  the  coming  session,  decide  this  question 
of  state  educational  policy,  that  the  lines  of  future  development  may 
be  determined  and  educational  and  financial  waste  be  avoided. 

ADVANTAGES  OF  SUCH   A   PLAN. 

The  many  advantages  of  such  a  comprehensive  plan  for  the  develop- 
ment of  professional  and  higher  education  in  this  state  will  be  evident. 
Briefly  stated,  they  are : 

1.  It   would   relieve   present   and   prevent   a  future   congestion   of 
immature  young  people  at   Berkeley,   and  would  substitute   smaller 
classes  under  closer  personal  supervision  for  the  mass  instruction  of 
Lower  Division  students  now  given  at  the  State  University. 

2.  It  would  give  a  new  spirit  to  the  work  of  the  Normal  Schools,  by 
introducing  new  subjects  of  study,  better  prepared  faculties,  and  new 
groups  of  young  people,  of  both  sexes,  who  have  new  interests.     The 
mutual  reaction  of  these  different  groups  would  improve  the  quality 
of  both  the  professional  and  the  collegiate  work,  and  the  mingling  of 
the  different  groups  would  serve  to  attract  many  to  teaching  who  now 
have  no  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with  the  work. 

3.  By  carrying  Junior  College,  and  eventually  collegiate  instruction 
nearer  to  the  homes,  it  would  make  possible  the  extension  of  a  college 
education  to  a  much  larger  number  of  our  people. 

4.  It  would  permit  of  the  transformation  of  the  State  University 
into  a  real  university  in  all  its  parts,  and  of  its  becoming  what  a  state 
university  should  become — a  group  of  professional  schools  beginning 
largely  at  the  Junior  year. 

5.  It  would  enable  Stanford  University,  which  is  a  valuable  supple- 
ment to  the  higher  educational  resources  of  this  state  and  which  must 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE.  79 

be  considered  as  having  a  semi-state  relationship,4  also  to  reduce  its 
first  and  second  years  to  a  preparatory  status,  and,  in  consequence,  to 
concentrate  its  resources  more  and  more  on  the  higher  and  more  expen- 
sive types  of  education  which  the  state  will  need  more  and  more  in  the 
years  to  come. 

6.  It  would  ultimately  provide  the  children  of  this  state  with  an 
economically  arranged  system  of  public  instruction,  and  one  based  on 
better  pedagogical  grounds  than  the  one  we  now  have,  as  is  shown  in 
the  chart  given  on  page  77.     Under  such  a  plan  our  young  people 
would  practically  complete  their  general  collegiate  education  at  twenty, 
instead  of  at  twenty-two,  as  at  present,  and  be  able  to  enter  business 
life  or  professional  study  two  years  earlier  than  now,  a  saving  both  to 
themselves  and  to  the  state  of  no  small  importance. 

7.  While  any  extension  of  educational  advantages  will  naturally  cost 
additional  sums,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  gradual  development 
of  such  a  state-wide  plan  for  higher  education,  with  less  expensive 
units,  would  result  in  lower  per  capita  costs,  wrhile  it  is  certain  that  it 
would   result    in    very   much   better   instruction,    and   a   much   more 
economical  utilization  of  equipment  and  the  services  of  more  capable 
professors. 

CONTROL  OF  SUCH  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  control  of  the  expansion  of  the  Normal  Schools  into  Teachers' 
and  Regional  Colleges  should  be  placed  with  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, as  was  outlined  and  stated  in  the  preceding  chapter.  In  cities  in 
which  State  Normal  Schools  are  located  the  school  should  take  over  the 
Junior  College  work  from  the  high  school,  unless  the  State  Board  of 
Education  grants  permission,  for  good  cause  shown,  to  the  city  school 
department  to  continue  the  work  or  to  maintain  a  parallel  development. 
The  development  of  Junior  Colleges  elsewhere  in  this  state,  either  by 
the  expansion  of  existing  high  schools  or  the  foundation  of  union- 
district  or  county  junior-college-districts,  should  be  under  the  provi- 
sions of  general  state  law.  To  this  end  the  Committee  recommends 
that  the  existing  law  on  the  subject  (Section  17506  of  the  Political 
Code)  be  revised  and  expanded,  and  made  to  include,  in  addition  to 
what  is  already  required  by  this  law,  the  following  new  provisions : 

1.  To  prevent  the  formation  of  Junior  Colleges  without  proper 
financial  backing,  and  where  not  needed,  the  assessed  valuation  of  the 
high  school  district  required  ($3,000,000)  should  be  raised  to  from 
three  to  four  times  that  amount,  and  a  population  limit  also  added.  In 
the  absence  of  carefully  gathered  figures,  an  assessed  valuation  of  not 


4Stanford  University's  creation  by  state  law  and  its  endowment  were  safeguarded  by 
the  people  of  this  state  through  an  amendment  to  the  State  Constitution ;  the  trustees 
are  required  to  make  an  annual  report  to  the  Governor  of  the  state ;  and  the  institution 
renders  valuable  service  to  the  state  in  the  training  of  teachers  and  professional 
leaders  and  without  cost  to  the  state. 


80  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

less  than  $10,000,000  and  a  total  population  in  the  district  of  not  less 
than  15,000  people,  might  well  be  established  as  a  tentative  minimum 
for  new  Junior  Colleges. 

2.  Junior  College  districts  should  be  organized  in  the  same  manner 
as  are  county  high  schools  now,  as  provided  for  in  section  1738  of  the 
Political  Code,  and  might  be  formed  by  a  city  school  district,  a  county 
school  district,  or  a  union  of  high  school  districts. 

3.  The  governing  board  for  the  Junior  College  should  be  the  high 
school  board  in  cities,  the  county  board  of  education  for  county-unit 
Junior  Colleges,  and  for  union  district  Junior  Colleges  should  be  formed 
on  some  representative  basis  from  existing  high  school  boards.     For 
Junior  Colleges  in  connection  with  a  Normal  School  or  a  Teachers' 
College,  or  the  State  University,  the  board  of  trustees  or  regents  for 
such  institution  would  form  the  board  of  control. 

4.  All  courses  of  instruction  in  the  Junior  Colleges,  as  now,  should  be 
subject  to  general  approval  by  the  State  Board  of  Education;  the 
courses  should  have  the  same  counting  value  as  Lower  Division  work 
at  the  State  University;  and  day  and  evening,  and  cultural  and  voca- 
tional courses,  should  be  permissible. 

5.  The  inspection  and  accrediting  of  Junior  College  courses  and  work, 
as  well  as  all  high  school  courses  and  work,  should  be  by  representatives 
of  the  State  Department  of  Education,  and  as  a  proper  function  of  the 
state.     To  this  end  the  State  Board  of  Education  should  be  directed  to 
take  over,  from  the  State  University,  the  high  school  inspecting  staff 
and  records,  and  give  to  this  staff  such  additional  service  as  may  be 
needed  to  inspect  and  approve  the  Junior  Colleges  as  they  develop. 
For  a  time  the  State  University  might  be  designated  to  act  as  agent  for 
the  State  Board  of  Education.     The  State  University  might  retain  a 
visiting  relation  to  the  high  schools  and  Junior  Colleges,  if  it  saw  fit 
to  do  so,  but  their  official  inspection,  accrediting  of  work  done,  and 
approval  of  money  grants  is  a  proper  state  function,  and  should  be 
exercised  by  representatives  of  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

6.  The  degrees  to  be  granted,  when  the  Teachers  Colleges  have  been 
developed,  should  be  under  the  authorization  of  one  central  board. 
As  was  pointed  out  in  the  preceding  chapter,  this  should  be  either  the 
University  of  California,  meaning  thereby  something  larger  than  the 
institution  at  Berkeley,  or  the  State  Board  of  Education  acting  as  a 
board  of  trustees  for  the  Teachers'  Colleges  of  California.    When  the 
University  of  California  becomes  an  integral  part  of  the  public  school 
system  of  the  state,  and  a  corporation  representing  the  higher  educa- 
tional interests  of  the  state,  it  would  be  proper  that  it  should  control 
the  conferring  of  degrees  in  all  its  collegiate  branches.     When  this 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE.  81 

stage  of  development  has  been  reached,  it  may  be  that  the  separate 
boards  of  trustees  for  the  Normal  Schools  could  largely  or  entirely  pass 
out  of  existence.  Until  such  a  transformation  has  been  effected,  though, 
it  will  be  best  that  control  remain  with  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

STATE    AID    FOR   AND    SUPPORT    OF   JUNIOR   COLLEGE   WORK. 

Such  a  development  as  has  been  sketched,  covering  a  period  of  perhaps 
the  coming  decade,  should  give  to  California  one  of  the  best  and  most 
satisfactory  systems  of  secondary  and  higher  education  to  be  found  in 
the  United  States,  and  one  that  would  carry  collegiate  education  to  the 
young  people  of  this  state  in  a  manner  and  to  a  degree  that  could  not 
otherwise  be  done.  The  Committee  feels  that  California  has  now  arrived 
at  a  stage  in  its  educational  development  that  warrants  such  a  further 
extension  of  educational  advantages,  and  that  the  rapid  growth  of  and 
the  resulting  congested  condition  at  the  State  University  makes  such  a 
development  very  desirable.  It  accordingly  recommends  that  a  begin- 
ning of  such  development  be  authorized  now  by  making  provision  for 
Junior  College  courses  in  the  State  Normal  Schools,  and  by  a  revision 
of  the  Junior  College  law  to  include  the  features  and  conditions  enumer- 
ated above. 

The  Committee  also  feels  that  the  time  has  arrived,  in  this  state,  when 
the  state  should  more  fully  assume,  as  it  did  earlier  in  the  case  of  the 
high  school  development,  the  state's  proper  share  in  the  cost  of  main- 
taining the  Junior  Colleges.  Under  Amendment  No.  16  these  Junior  Col- 
leges would  now  be  entitled  to  $30  of  state  aid  for  each  student  in 
average  daily  attendance  the  preceding  year.  As  the  cost  for  maintain- 
ing instruction  in  the  Junior  Colleges  will  probably  approximate  the 
cost  of  Lower  Division  work  at  the  State  University,  and  as  the  state 
will  not  need  to  spend  money  for  instruction  there  for  all  students  who 
would  have  gone  there  and  instead  attend  a  Junior  College  elsewhere, 
it  would  seem  fair  that  the  state  should  assume  a  materially  larger 
share  of  the  cost  of  Junior  College  instruction. 

The  Committee  therefore  recommends  that  this  be  assumed,  and,  as 
a  tentative  basis,  until  experience  demonstrates  that  other  sums  are 
more  desirable,  recommends  that  the  Legislature  create  a  separate  Junior 
College  Fund;  that  the  state  grant  for  Junior  College  students  be 
increased  to  $100  per  pupil  in  average  daily  attendance  the  preceding 
year;  and  that  this  grant  be  contingent  upon  the  approval  of  the  instruc- 
tion as  now,  and  the  levying  and  expending  locally  of  not  less  than 
$150  additional  per  pupil  in  average  daily  attendance.5  Pupils  coming 


5At  the  University  of  Washington,  which  has  one  of  the  best  cost-record  system-!  of 
any  American  university,  the  cost  of  Freshman  and  Sophomore  instruction  has  been 
found  to  be  almost  even'  $250  per  student  per  year. 

6—7763 


82  REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

from  high  school  districts  not  maintaining  a  Junior  College,  and  attend- 
ing a  Junior  College  maintained  by  a  Junior-College  district,  a  State 
Normal  School  or  Teachers'  College,  or  the  State  University,  shall  be 
admitted  to  the  instruction  only  upon  the  district  from  which  they 
come  agreeing  to  pay  to  the  Junior  College  receiving  them  $150  per 
pupil  per  year.  This  last  provision  is  necessary  to  insure  that  com- 
munities in  which  state  schools  are  located,  or  which  do  not  maintain  a 
Junior  College,  shall  assume  their  proper  share  of  the  cost  for  Junior 
College  instruction. 

SUMMARY  OF   FINDINGS  AND    RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In  summary  form,  the  findings  and  recommendations  of  the  Com- 
mittee are  as  follows : — 

1.  California  ranks  with  the  New  England  states  in  the  early  interest 
in  secondary  schools,  though  this  early  interest  was  for  a  time  checked 
by  the  reactionary  attitude  taken  toward  higher  schools  by  the  Consti- 
tution of  1879.    Since  1891  the  interest  has  grown  steadily  and  rapidly, 
and  today  California  is  fairly  well  supplied  with  a  high  grade  of  second- 
ary schools  and  secondary  school  teachers. 

2.  Distinguishing  features  of  the  California  high  school  system  have 
been  separate  financing,  a  separate  teacher's  certificate  required,  and 
adequate  finance.    To  these  features  are  due  much  of  the  present  excel- 
lence of  the  California  high  school  system. 

3.  The  needs  of  secondary  education  in  this  state  consequently  lie 
in  the  extension  of  the  high  school,  both  along  vocational  lines  and  up- 
ward to  form  Junior  Colleges. 

4.  The  new  interest  in  higher  education  is  world  wide,  and  promises 
to  be  permanent.    In  consequence  the  State  University,  in  common  with 
colleges  and  universities  everywhere,  is  crowded,  and  bids  fair  to  be- 
come more  so  with  time.     A  University  attendance  at  Berkeley  alone 
of  16,500  by  1930  seems  proable,  and  of  20,000  by  1935.    The  congrega- 
tion of  this  number  in  one  city  institution  is  neither  wise,  economical, 
or  desirable. 

5.  A  program  for  future  California  development,  in  keeping  with 
needs  in  both  teacher-training  and  collegiate  expansion,  involves  the 
addition  of  Junior  College  work  to  the  State  Normal  Schools,  and  in 
time  the  development  of  these  into  a  series  of  regional  state  colleges 
combining  teachers'  college  work  and  collegiate  instruction, 

6.  In  addition,  Junior  Colleges  should  be  permitted  to  be  developed 
elsewhere,  and  to  that  end  a  revision  of  the  Junior  College  law  is  recom- 
mended. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE.  83 

7.  To  finance  properly  such  a  development  it  is  recommended  that 
a  State  Junior  College  Fund  be  created,  and  increased  state  aid  to  com- 
munities maintaining  Junior  Colleges  be  granted.    To  the  same  end,  all 
school  districts  not  maintaining  Junior  Colleges  and  sending  pupils  to 
them  should  be  required  to  contribute  the  cost  of  their  education  in 
addition  to  the  state  contribution. 

8.  The  advantages  of  such  a  plan  are  numerous  and  evident.     It 
would  transform  the  Normal  Schools  into  a  good  grade  of  professional 
and  collegiate  institutions  and  restore  them  once  more  to  favor,  carry 
collegiate  education  closer  to  the  people  of  the  state,  relieve  a  very 
undesirable  congestion  at  Berkeley,  and  enable  the  State  University  to 
concentrate  its  work  on  Upper  Division  and  graduate  work  of  real 
university  grade.    The  plan  would  in  all  probability  reduce  per  capita 
costs,  save  large  additional  plant  outlays  at  Berkeley,  and  better  utilize 
both  equipment  and  faculty. 

9.  During  the  process  of  such  a  development,  the  State  Board  of 
Education  should  be  given  general  control,   and  the  inspection  and 
accrediting  of  both  high  schools  and  Junior  Colleges  should  be  trans- 
ferred from  the  State  University  to  the  State  Board  of  Education.  After 
the  development  has  been  accomplished,  some  type  of  unified  control 
of  all  higher  institutions  should  be  worked  out  and  applied,  a  control 
that  will  insure  harmonious  cooperation  with  the  public  school  system 
of  the  state. 


REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE   COAiivllTTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  BETTER  EQUALIZATION  OF  FUNDS. 

The  Committee  had  neither  the  means  at  its  disposal  nor  the  time 
to  make  a  full  report  on  questions  of  cost.  Certain  facts,  however,  were 
brought  out  at  the  hearings  which  seem  worthy  of  mention  in  a  final 
chapter  of  this  Report. 

The  prime  purpose  in  educational  administration,  it  must  always  be 
remembered,  is  but  to  plan  how  to  spend  the  money  available  in  the 
most  satisfactory  manner.  If  saving  money  were  the  purpose  in  school 
work,  it  would  be  better  at  once  to  curtail  all  educational  effort  and 
ultimately  to  abandon  education  as  a  public  function,  leaving  the  pro- 
vision of  educational  opportunities  to  private  schools  and  the  churches. 
Such  is  neither  the  desire  nor  the  purpose  of  our  American  people,  and 
they  have  so  expressed  themselves  and  in  no  undecided  manner  many 
times  since  the  first  agitation  for  free  public  schools  began.  Instead,  our 
people  look  upon  a  good  education  at  public  expense  as  "a  productive 
expenditure  which  is  not  only  an  investment  but  an  insurance,"  and 
for  which  they  can  not  afford  not  to  spend  the  needed  money.  The 
real  questions  are,  Are  we  getting  the  largest  possible  returns  for  the 
money  we  are  spending?  and,  Could  we,  by  following  any  other  plan  or 
plans,  secure  even  larger  returns  for  the  money  we  are  now  spending 
and  in  the  future  will  spend  ?  There  is  but  one  general  recipe  for  better 
schools,  and  that  is  to  spend  more  money  in  a  better  way. 

The  hearings  and  the  subsequent  study  and  discussion  seemed  to 
indicate  that  some  improvement  might  be  made  along  two  lines,  and 
to  these  the  Committee  will  confine  its  statement  in  this  the  final 
chapter  of  its  Report.  They  are: 

1.  In  the  substitution  of  the  county-unit  form  of  educational  admin- 
istration for  that  of  the  school  district. 

2.  In  the  apportionment  of  the  state  and  county  school  funds. 

(a)   The  elementary  school  fund. 
(&)  The  high  school  fund. 

I.     POSSIBLE   COUNTY-UNIT    ECONOMIES. 

The  Committee  was  convinced  by  its  study  that  the  district  system 
of  school  administration  is  unnecessarily  expensive,  in  addition  to 
being  one  under  which  progress  is  both  slow  and  difficult.  Still  more, 
with  the  salary  increases  and  larger  maintenance  costs  that  will  follow 
from  the  increased  state  and  county  aid  which  Constitutional  Amend- 
ment No.  16  will  bring,  the  district  system  will  become  more  expensive  to 
this  state  in  the  future  than  it  has  ever  been  before.  In  Chapter  II 


A  BETTER  EQUALIZATION  OF  FUNDS.  85 

we  indicated  a  number  of  the  smaller  unnecessary  expenses  which  it 
occasions,  and  there  stated  that,  on  the  experience  of  other  states, 
writers  on  the  subject  confidently  assert  that  from  one-sixth  to  one-fifth 
of  l.'O  teachers  of  a  county  could  be  dispensed  with  under  a  well 
organized  county-unit  form  of  school  consolidation,  and  from  one- 
fourth  to  one-third  under  consolidation  if  KO  better  educational  facil- 
ities were  provided.  Assuming  this  to  be  the  case,  it  is  probable  that, 
if  our  schools  were  reorganized  as  county-unit  schools  and  properly 
administered,  as  much  as  $1,000,000  a  year  could  be  saved  in  this  state 
for  better  purposes,  as  well  as  the  time  and  services  of  some  10,000  minor 
school  officials,  who  after  all  are  not  needed. 

The  Committee  would  not  have  anyone  infer  that  if  this  were  done 
the  expense  for  education  in  this  state  could,  in  consequence,  be  reduced 
$1,000,000.  Such  a  change  would  necessarily  have  to  be  gradual,  and 
the  money  saved  would  be  at  once  called  to  meet  the  educational  needs 
of  a  constantly  increasing  school  population.  What  would  be  accom- 
plished would  be  a  better  use  of  the  money  at  hand,  and  the  cost,  when 
the  schools  were  reorganized  under  the  county-unit  plan,  would  be 
$1,000,000  or  so  less  than  it  would  have  been  under  the  district  system. 

A  number  of  studies,  both  in  California  and  elsewhere,  bear  out  this 
belief.  Confining  our  statements  to  California,  we  would  cite  seven 
county  reorganization  surveys  made  by  graduate  students  at  Stanford 
University,  under  the  direction  of  Professor  Cubberley.  These  were 
careful  studies,  upon  which  each  student  spent  a  year  of  personal 
investigation,  and  at  the  close  formulated  a  report  in  writing.  These 
reports  were  typewritten,  bound,  and  are  in  the  Stanford  University 
library.  To  these  the  Committee  has  had  access.  The  first  of  the 
reports  made  was  considered  so  good  a  study  of  the  type  of  educational 
reorganization  needed  in  our  counties  that  it  was  accepted  for  publica- 
tion by  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  and  issued  as  a 
public  document.1  The  other  studies  were  similar,  and  covered  the 
counties  of  Sonoma,  Napa,  San  Mateo,  Santa  Clara,  Santa  Cruz,  Orange, 
.and  Riverside.  These  counties  represent  quite  different  educational 
conditions,  and  are  fairly  typical  of  reorganization  possibilities  in  tnis 
state. 

Each  graduate  student  working  on  the  problem  visited  every  school 
in  the  county,  studied  the  roads  and  distances  and  the  natural  com- 
munity boundaries,  calculated  the  transportation  routes  needed, 
obtained  cost  figures  at  the  county  court  house,  and  planned,  under 
direction,  an  educational  reorganization  of  the  schools  of  the  county 
under  a  county-unit  form  of  government,  with  consolidated  schools 
where  possible.  He  also  provided  in  the  reorganization  for  a  better  and 

'Williams,  J.  Harold.  "Reorganizing  a  County  System  of  Rural  Schools."  Bulletin 
No.  16,  1916,  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education.  52  pages.  Washington,  1916. 


86' 


KEPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


a  more  efficient  type  of  school  system,  with  longer  terms,  uniform 
teachers'  salaries,  better  supervision,  and  general  high-school  advan- 
tages. Even  after  doing  this,  and  often  providing  transportation 
routes  for  small  numbers  of  children,  the  costs  for  the  much  superior 
county-unit  school  system  frequently  were  less  than  for  the  existing 
district  system.  As  these  studies  were  made  in  1915  and  1916,  repre- 
sent pre-war  costs  and  salary  schedules,  and  were  mostly  based  on  horse- 
drawn  transportation  wagons,  the  differences  in  favor  of  reorganization 
now,  with  salaries  based  on  Amendment  16  appropriations  and  auto- 
mobile transportation,  would  be  considerably  more  marked  than  those 
calculated  even  a  few  years  ago.  For  five  of  the  counties  the  figures 
were  worked  out  with  much  care,  and  they  show  the  following  results : 

TABLE  in. 

Showing    Results  of   County-Reorganization    Studies   in    California. 
(Data  for  the  year  1915-16.) 


County 

Sonoma 

San 
Mateo 

Santa 
Clara 

Santa  Cruz 

Orange 

Number  school  districts 

147 

37 

84 

54 

50 

Number  one-room  schools  
Consolidation  data- 
Possible  centers    . 

115 

32 

23 
13 

40 
28 

45 
15 

11 
21 

Schools    not    possible    to 
consolidate 

4 

2 

5 

5+  5* 

Teachers  needed  — 
Before  consolidation  _      

280 

130 

346 

141 

247 

After  consolidation 

211 

107 

310 

139 

9->4 

Change  after  reorganization- 
Cost  for  two  plans  — 
Cost  preceding  year  

-69 
$333,759 

—23 
$218,099 

—36 
$548,570 

—2 
$209,426 

—23 

$482,595 

Cost  after  reorganization_. 

299,729 

199,575 

475,900 

246,302 

396,642 

Gain  or  loss  in  costt  

—$34,030 

-$18,523 

-$72,670 

+$36,876** 

—$85,951 

*Five  schools  could  not  be  consolidated,  and  five  2  to  3  teacher  schools  were  left  as  they  were 
cs  being  satisfactory. 

"The  increased  cost  here  was  largely  due  to  a  40  per  cent  Increase  in  salary  this  investi- 
gator thought  was  necessary  for  all  teachers  in  the  county,  and  to  the  difficulty  of  transportation 
in  a  mountainous  county  at  that  time  without  hard  roads. 

tA  resurvey  of  these  same  counties,  excepting  San  Mateo,  where  the  investigator  provided 
for  automobile  transportation  and  larger  school  units,  made  today  with  the  better  roads  and 
the  larger  school  units  now  possible,  would  result  in  further  decreases  in  number  of  consolidating 
centers,  larger  schools,  fewer  teachers,  and  larger  differences  in  costs. 

II.     APPORTIONING   THE   ELEMENTAY  SCHOOL   FUND. 

Under  existing  laws  both  the  state  school  fund  and  tax  and  the 
county  school  tax  are  apportioned  on  the  combined  basis  of  the  num- 
ber of  teachers  needed,  as  determined  by  an  artificial  method,  and  the 
number  of  pupils  in  average  daily  attendance  during  the  preceding 
school  year.  Instead  of  determining  the  number  of  teachers  needed 
by  the  number  actually  employed,  as  is  done  in  practically  all  other 
states  using  a  teacher  basis  for  the  apportionment  of  funds,  the  number 
of  teachers  supposed  to  be  needed  in  California  is  determined,  for 


A  BETTER  EQUALIZATION  OF  FUNDS.  87 

each  county,  by  the  county  superintendent  of  schools  by  allowing  each 
school  district  one  teacher  for  every  35  pupils  in  average  daily  attend- 
ance the  preceding  year,  or  fraction  of  35  not  less  than  10.  This  num- 
ber is  reported  to  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  and  forms 
the  basis  for  the  teacher  apportionments  made  by  the  state  to  the 
counties,  and  by  the  counties  to  the  districts.  The  state  grant,  in  the 
past,  when  the  total  state  aid  set  aside  by  law  required  to  equal  $17.50 
per  pupil  in  average  daily  attendance  in  the  state,  was  at  the  rate  of 
$350  per  teacher  so  determined,  and  the  county  grant  was  at  the 
rate  of  $800  per  teacher  on  the  same  basis.  Constitutional  Amendment 
No.  16  has  raised  the  state  grant  from  $17.50  to  $30  per  pupil,  and  the 
minimum  county  tax  has  similarly  been  increased  to  an  amount  not 
less  than  that  received  from  the  state.  • 

The  effect  of  such  a  basis  of  apportionment,  under  the  old  law,  as 
it  relates  to  the  teacher  quota  part,  is  shown  in  Table  IV  on  page 
eighty-eight.  From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  total  number  of  teachers 
so  calculated  for  the  state  was  13,401,  and  the  number  actually  employed 
was  15,319.  This  gives  a  ratio  of  employment  to  the  calculated  num- 
ber of  114.3  per  cent ;  that  is,  for  every  100  teachers  calculated  as  needed 
there  were  employed,  averaged  over  the  state,  114.3.  The  table  shows, 
for  each  county,  the  number  calculated  as  needed  for  the  school  year 
1919-20,  the  number  that  should  have  been  employed  on  the.  state 
ratio,  the  number  actually  employed  this  same  year,  and  the  gain  or 
loss.  An  inspection  of  the  table  shows  that,  when  we  balance  the  city 
counties,  with  their  many  special  teachers,  against  the  more  rural  count- 
ties  with  their  complete  lack  of  any  such  special  instruction,  it  is  the 
rural  counties  that  lose  under  this  arrangement.  It  also  works  distinctly 
against  good  education  in  our  small  schools.  Eight  grades,  every  one 
recognizes,  are  too  many  for  one  teacher.  The  cities  easily,  due  to 
numbers,  specialize  their  instruction  so  that  no  teacher  handles  more 
than  one  grade,  and  seldom  more  than  an  average  daily  attendance  of 
35  children.  Due  to  the  many  schools  and  classes,  it  is  easy  in  the 
city  to  shift  any  surplus  to  some  other  room  and  teacher.  The  rural 
school,  however,  must  maintain  a  yearly  average  daily  attendance  of 
45  children  before  it  can  be  allotted  funds  for  a  second  teacher,  though 
the  need  for  a  division  of  the  grades  between  two  teachers  is  great. 
A  yearly  average  daily  attendance  of  45  children  means  an  enrollment 
of  50  to  55  children — a  number  entirely  too  large  for  one  teacher  to 
handle.  The  result  is  that  the  crowded  rural  school  is  forced  to  get 
along  with  one  teacher,  because  the  burden  for  an  additional  teacher 
would  fall  entirely  on  the  district. 

The  effect  of  the  present  teacher  apportionment  plan  is  to  penalize 
the  rural  counties,  and  to  make  poorer  than  necessary  the  schools  that 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


TABLE   IV. 

Showing   Relation  of  Teachers  Allowed  to  Teachers  Employed. 
(Data  for  1919-20.) 


Bounty 

Number  of  teachers 

Employed 

Allowed 

On  state 
ratio 

Employed 

Less 

More 

The  State      ._    —    ._ 

13,401 

1,195.7 
3.0 
56.2 
151.0 
54.3 
50.4 
244.3 
•       19.0 
59.9 
634.1 
69.9 
202.0 
178.0 
36.0 
291.0 
115.3 
40.6 
53.0 
3,007.4 
86.2 
106.3 
31.1 
158.0 
137.1 
49.0 
8.0 
155.3 
87.4 
66.0 
257.7 
99.9 
33.0 
218.8 
332.2 
51.8 
302.1 
400.0 
1,347.0 
331.5 
138.0 
170.0 
160.7 
398.1 
122.8 
121.0 
14.0 
134.0 
130.3 
278.7 
220.4 
52.0 
83.3 
25.0 
308.6 
51.1 
133.2 
81.1 
59.0 

114.3% 

1,366.6 
3.5 
64.2 
172.6 
62.0 
57.2 
278.9 
22.7 
68.4 
724.6 
80.0 
230.1 
203.5 
41.1 
332.6 
131.4 
46.6 
60.6 
3,438.3 
98.5 
121.5 
35.4 
180.6 
156.8 
55.9 
9.2 
177.2 
99.8 
75.4 
294.4 
114.0 
37.6 
250.2 
379.5 
59.2 
345.1 
457.2 
1,539.6 
380.8 
157.7 
194.3 
183.6 
455.1 
140.4 
138.3 
16.0 
153.1 
148.4 
318.4 
255.4 
59.4 
95.2 
28.4 
352.8 
58.5 
152.2 
92.6 
66.3 

15,319 

1,419 
3 
59 

166 
56 
57 
280 
21 
60 
667 
79 
224 
211 
41 
330 
122 
42 
59 
3,641 
92 
119 
31 
162 
149 
54 
9 
154 
89 
68 
324 
98 
38 
255 
434 
50 
359 
479 
1,579 
352 
152 
183 
190 
422 
138 
123 
17 
136 
135 
290 
231 
62 
95 
27 
322 
52 
162 
86 
65 

Alameda  

52.4 

Alpine  

.5 
5.2 
6.6 
6.0 
.2 

Amador   _ 

Butte    

Calaveras  _ 

Colusa           _    _ 

Contra  Costa    _' 

.1 

Del  Norte 

1.7 
8.4 
57.4 
1.0 
6.1 

El  Dorado 

Fresno    _ 

Glenn 

Humboldt 

Imperial    

7.5 

Inyo  _  

.1 
2.6 
9.4 
4.6 

1.6 

Kern     _ 

Kings             -      

Lake 

Lassen    _         

Los  Angeles 

196.3 

Madera  _.  ,  

6.5 
2.5 
4.4 
18.6 
7.8 
1.9 
.2 
23.2 
10.8 
7.4 

Marin 

Mariposa                           _  - 

Mendocino 

Merce(}    

Modoc  

Mono     _    

Monterey  

Napa     

Nevada      

Orange  ,. 

27.6 

Placer                    _  _ 

16.0 

Plumas           -          -- 

4 

4.8 
54.5 

Riverside    _ 

Sacramento 

San  Benito 

9.2 

San  Bernardino    _ 

13.9 
21.8 
39.4 

San  Diego 

San  Francisco 

San  Joaquin  

27.8 
7.7. 
11.3 

San  Luis  Obispo  

San  Mateo  

Santa  Barbara  

6.4 

Santa  Clara  

33.1 
2.4 
16.3 

Santa  Cruz  

Shasta                    -    

Sierra     -       -            --    

1.0 

Siskiyou    _            - 

17.1 
13.4 
28.4 
24.4 

Solano          .      -    ' 

Sonoma   

Stanislaus 

Sutter                    .               _    __ 

2.6 

Tehama         -    --    -_    

.2 

1.4 
30.8 
6.5 

Trinity    -    . 

Tulare 

Tuolumne 

Ventura    .                          .. 

9.8 

Yolo  —  

6.6 
1.3 

Yuba  .. 

A  BETTER  EQUALIZATION  OF  FUNDS.  89 

supply  education  to  our  country  boys  and  girls.  This  condition  will  be 
further  aggravated  as  a  result  of  the  adoption  of  Amendment  16. 
Were  the  basis  of  apportionments  changed  from  such  an  artificial  method 
for  calculating  teachers  needed  to  records  of  actual  employment,  many 
crowded  one-teacher  schools  would  at  once  add  a  second  teacher,  and 
small  town  schools  would  add  some  of  that  special  instruction  which 
the  cities  today  everywhere  enjoy,  but  which  is  now  almost  entirely 
absent  from  our  town  and  rural  schools.  This  would  tend  to  a  better 
equalization  of  educational  advantages  throughout  the  state,  and  the 
Committee  recommends  that  such  a  change  in  basis  be  made. 

With  the  larger  funds  that  will  be  available  under  the  provisions  of 
Amendment  16,  it  has  seemed  to  the  Committee  that  other  items  than 
teachers  and  attendance  should  be  included  in  making  both  the 
state  and  county  apportionment  of  funds.  It  is  wise  state  policy  to 
place  as  many  premiums  on  local  effort  as  can  be  done.  To  stimulate 
a  community  to  new  educational  activity  is  more  important  than  reduc- 
ing its  taxes.  To  that  end,  the  state,  in  apportioning  funds  to  the 
counties,  and  the  counties  to  the  districts  while  we  retain  the  district 
system,  should  place  as  many  " baits"  in  the  law  for  local  school 
improvement  as  may  be  needed.  Some  of  those  that  might  well  be 
added,  it  has  seemed  to  the  Committee,  in  addition  to  the  employment 
of  extra  teachers  for  the  rural  schools  which  would  be  covered  by  the 
change  in  basis  for  calculating  teacher  apportionments,  are:  The  con- 
solidation of  schools ;  the  employment  of  supervising  principals  for  each 
school,  with  time  free  for  supervision;  the  employment  of  school  nurses; 
and  a  premium  on  longer  school  terms.  .  The  state  fund,  under  the 
provisions  of  Amendment  16,  will  be  almost  doubled,  and  hence  the 
apportionments  under  the  present  law  will  be  almost  doubled.  Instead 
of  doing  this  the  Committee  would  suggest  amending  the  law,  after  some 
such  plan  as  the  following,  as  the  basis  upon  which  the  state,  school 
fund  should  in  future  be  apportioned  to  the  counties : 

$  for  every  full-time  teacher  -  actually  employed  in  a  day  or 
evening  elementary  school  or  kindergarten,  -and  to  include 
special  teachers,  school  nurses,  and  parental  school  teachers. 

$  for  every  such  .half-time  teacher,  or  full-time,  teacher  em- 
ployed for  half  the  school  year. 

$  additional  for  every  teacher  employed  in  the. seventh,  eighth, 
or  ninth  grades  and  teaching  under  a  departmental  or  inter- 
mediate form  of  organization. 

$  additional  for  every  supervising  principal  employed  who  has 
at  least  half  his  time  free  for  school  supervision,  and  for 
every  city  or  county  special-subject  supervisor. 


2The  amounts  to  ho  apportioned  per  teacher  are  left  blank,  subject  to  determination 
later  on,  after  careful  calculations  have  been  made. 


90  REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE   COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 

The  remainder  of  the  fund  to  be  apportioned  on  the  basis  of  the 
average  daily  attendance  of  pupils. 

After  the  money  has  reached  the  counties,  and  while  retaining  the 
district  system  of  school  administration,  the  above  grants  to  be  doubled 
in  making  the  county  apportionment  to  the  districts. 

After  the  county-unit  has  been  put  into  force,  both  state  and  county 
funds  to  be  divided  between  any  separate  city  school  districts  in  the 
county,  and  the  county  school  district,  on  the  above  bases. 

In  addition,  in  apportioning  the  county  fund,  the  following  additional 
items  to  be  added : 

$         for  every  full-time  attendance  officer  employed. 

$         for  every  school  physician  employed. 

$  for  every  regular  transportation  route  maintained3  to  carry 
pupils  from  an  abandoned  district  school  to  a  consolidated  or 
union  school,  when  the  contracts  for  such  are  as  provided  for 
by  general  regulation  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  ancl 
have  been  approved  by  the  county  superintendent  of  schools. 

$1.50  per  day  per  teacher  for  all  time  taught  each  year  beyond  160 
days. 

The  State  Board  of  Education  to  be  given  power  to  define,  by  general 
rule,  the  conditions  under  which  the  above  grants  are  to  be  made. 

Some  such  basis  as  the  above,  the  Committee  feels,  would  not  only 
be  more  equitable  than  the  present  apportionment  law,  but  would  do 
much  to  stimulate  our  counties  and  school  districts,  outside  of  the  cities, 
to  desirable  new  activity  that  would  be  of  much  value  to  education  in 
this  state.  The  Committee  accordingly  recommends  that  such  a  change 
be  made  in  the  existing  state  and  county  apportionment  laws. 

In  keeping  with  the  above  provision,  relating  to  length  of  school  term, 
the  Committee  further  recommends  that  section  1859  of  the  Political 
Code  be  amended  to  make  the  minimum  term  of  school  in  this  state 
eight,  instead  of  six  months.4 

III.     APPORTIONMENT  OF    HIGH    SCHOOL   FUNDS. 

When  we  pass  from  the  apportionment  of  funds  for  elementary 
schools  to  the  apportionment  of  funds  for  high  schools  we  find  a  more 
satisfactory  condition,  though  the  California  plan  seems  to  the  Com- 
mittee to  have  one  defect  which  ought  to  be  remedied.  Under  existing 
laws  the  state  high  school  fund  is  divided  into  two  portions,  one  of  one- 
third,  and  one  of  two-thirds.  The  one-third  part  is  apportioned  equally 
to  all  the  high  schools  of  the  state,  regardless  of  size,  and  at  present 

'This  Item  would  of  course  disappear  after  the  institution  of  the  county  unit,  as 
all  county  school  funds  would  be  in  one  budget. 

4This  would  involve  but  little  addition,  even  with  the  district  system,  as  nearly  all 
schools  now  run  7}  to  8  months.  Under  the  county-unit  plan  a  uniform  term  of 
8  to  9  months  ought  to  become  general. 


A  BETTER  EQUALIZATION'  Of  FUNDS.  (J1 

amounts  to  about  $1,100  a  year  per  school.5  The  two-thirds  part  is 
apportioned  to  the  high  schools  of  the  state  on  the  basis  of  the  average 
daily  attendance  in  each  the  preceding  year,  and  amounts  to  approxi- 
mately $10  per  pupil.  These  amounts  go,  through  the  county  treasurer, 
to  the  individual  high  schools  for  which  they  were  allotted.  Under  the 
provisions  of  Constitutional  Amendment  16,  increasing  the  state  aid  to 
be  so  apportioned  from  $15  to  $30  per  pupil  in  average  daily  attendance, 
these  grants  under  existing  law  will  be  doubled  in  the  future.  A  county 
high  school  tax  must  also  be  levied  to  supplement  the  sums  received 
from  the  state,  the  minimum  levy  of  which  is  $(i()  per  pupil  in  average 
daily  attendance.  The  basis  for  the  apportionment  of  this  county  tax  is 
somewhat  different,  being  $250  per  teacher  employed,  up  to  a  maximum 
of  four  teachers,  and  the  balance  on  average  daily  attendance  alone. 
This  practically  apportions  all  the  county  high  school  fund  to  the  high 
schools  on  the  basis  of  their  average  daily  attendance  the  preceding 
year. 

While  the  number  of  pupils  in  a  high  school  is  perhaps  a  somewhat 
more  important  factor  in  maintenance  costs  than  in  elementary  educa- 
tion, the  Committee,  nevertheless,  feels  that  it  is  given  far  too  much 
importance  in  the  California  apportionment  plan.  It  places  entirely 
too  much  of  a  premium  on  pupil  attendance,  and  neglects  the  more 
important  factors  of  unit  costs  for  maintenance,  teachers  employed, 
and  expense  of  different  courses  provided.  After  the  establishment  of 
a  high  school,  which  in  itself  represents  a  continuing  administrative 
unit  of  cost,  the  real  unit  of  further  cost  is  not  so  much  the  addition 
of  more  pupils  as  the  addition  of  more  teachers.  The  present  apportion- 
ment plan  offers  no  incentive  whatever  to  communities  maintaining  high 
schools  to  put  in  additional  teachers  or  to  broaden  the  courses  of 
instruction  in  their  high  schools  to  meet  the  needs  of  different  classes 
of  pupils  and  the  changing  needs  of  modern  life.  Rather  it  places  a 
premium  on  conservatism  and  inaction.  The  school  with  a  few 
teachers  receives  too  much ;  the  school  with  an  adequate  teaching  staff 
and  a  broad  curriculum  too  little.  This  may  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing table,  which  has  been  calculated  on  the  basis  of  the  doubled  appor- 
tionment that  will  follow  for  the  future,  and  on  perhaps  a  conservative 
estimate  as  to  maintenance  costs.  The  last  column,  showing  what  per- 
centage of  the  estimated  cost  the  new  state  apportionment  on  the  old 


•"'This  sum  has  been  slowly  increasing'  since  it  was  lirsi  provided  for.  In  li'll-li' 
it  amounted  to  $794.78;  by  1916-17  it  had  increased  to  $1,022.S8  :  and  for  1919-20  it 
was  $1,108.38.  After  applying  the  doubled  sum  provided  for  by  Amendment  16  it  would 
be  about  $2,225,  and  with  the  county  grant  for  I  teachers  per  school  would  amount 
to  about  $3,225.  Under  the  revised  plan  proposed  it  would  always  lie  $2.000.  with  a 
new  teacher  grant  added  which  would  vary  with  the  number  of  teachers  employed. 


92 


REPORT    OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON   EDUCATION. 


basis  will  provide,  shows  the  penalty  it  would  place  on  supplying  an 
adequate  teaching  staff  for  any  size  of  school. 

The  cheapest  thing  for  a  community  to  do,  Table  V  shows,  is  to  pro- 
vide as  meager  a  four-year  course  of  instruction  as  possible.  Up  to  an 
average  daily  attendance  of  50  or  60  pupils,  the  requirements  of  the 
state  will  be  met  by  maintaining  book-study  instruction,  with  two  or 
three  overworked  teachers  employed.  The  languages,  history,  English, 

TABLE  v. 

APPORTIONMENT    OF    HIGH    SCHOOL    FUNDS— PRESENT    PLAN. 

Showing  the  Value  of  the  State  Aid,  as  It  Will  Be  If  the  Present  High  School 

Apportionment   Law   Remains   Unchanged.     Value  of  State  Grants  for 

Different  Sizes  of  High  Schools. 


School 

Average 
daily 
attendance 

Number  of  i     Estimated 
teachers            cost  for 
employed        maintenance 

State  aid  received 

Per 

cent 
of  cost 
paid 

School 
grant 
at  $2,200 

Av.  dally 
attendance 
grant 
at  $20 

Total 
state 
grant 

A 
B 

C 

D 
F. 

F 
G 

25 

2 

3 

4 

2 
3 
4 
5 

3 

4 
5 
6 

4 
5 
6 

7 

8 
10 
12 
14 

20 
22 
25 

40 
50 

$7,500 
9,000 
10,500 

8,000 
9,500 
ll.CCO 
12,500 

10,000 
12,500 
16,000 
18,000 

13.000 
16,500 
20.000 
23,000 

25,000 
29,000 
32,000 
35,000 

55,000 
59,000 
65,OCO 

110.COO 
130,000 

$2,200 

$500         $2,700 

36 
30 
26 

40 
34 
29 
25 

•  37 
30 
23 

20 

32 
26 
21 
18 

29 
25 
22 

20 

22 
20 
19 

20 
16 

50 

2,200 

1,000 

3,200 

75 

2,200  :        1,500           3,700 

ICO 

2,200           2,000           4,200 

250 

2,200 

5,000 

7,200 

500 

2,200 

10,000 

12,200 

1.000 

2,200 

20,000 

22,200 

mathematics,  and  a  little  science  will  answer,  and  be  at  the  same  time 
relatively  cheap.  A  room,  a  stove,  some  desks,  a  few  books,  and  a 
teacher  will  meet  the  requirements  for  instruction.  The  case  of  schools 
.B,  Cr  D  or  E,  in  the  above  table,  when  employing  the  lowest  number 
of  teachers,  will  illustrate  such  a  condition.  The  state  here  pays  the 
maximum  percentage  for  support,  and  the  school  gives  in  return  the 
minimum  quality  of  education.  Still  more,  the  state  offers  no  incentive 
to  such  a  community  ever  to  remedy  such  a  situation. 


A  BETTER  EQUALIZATION  OF  FUNDS. 


93 


After  experimenting  with  a  number  of  different  calculations,  and 
trying  to  derive  fractional  quotas  based  on  an  estimate  of  the  present 
number  of  schools,  teachers,  pupils,  and  funds,  the  Committee  finally 
worked  out  a  plan  cf  unit  grants,  similar  to  that  recommended  for 
elementary  schools,  which  gave  the  best  results,  when  reduced  to  a  table, 
of  any  that  were  worked  out.  Table  VI,  showing  the  working  of  the 
revised  plan  for  the  same  group  of  high  schools,  gives  the  result,  and  a 
comparison  of  the  percentage  of  total  cost  paid  by  the  state  grants, 

TABLE   VI. 
APPORTIONMENT  OF   HIGH    SCHOOL    FUN  DS— REVISED   PLAN. 

Showing  tre  Value  of  the  State  Aid,   As   It  Would    Be   If  the  Apportionment   Law 

Were   Revised   As   Is  Suggested    In   This  Chapter.     Value  of  State   Grant 

for  Different  Sizes  of   High   Schools. 


Average      Number  of 
School                  daily          teachers 
attendance    employed 

Estimated 
cost  for 
maintenance 

State  aid  received 

Per 
cent 
of  cost 
paid 

School 
grant 
at  $1,000 

Teacher 
grants 
at  $300 
to  $100 

Av.  daily 
Utendance 
grsnl 

at  $i:'. 

Total 
state 
grant 

. 

A                       25               2 
3 

$7,500 

9,000 
10,500 

8,000 
9,5CG 
ll.COO 
12,500 

laooo 

12,500 
16,OCO 
18,000 

13.COO 
16.500 

20,00;) 
23,000 

25,000 
29,000 
32,000 
3.5,000 

55,OCO 
59,000 
65,000 

110.COO 
130,000 

$1,000       $eco 

BOO 

$325 

$1,925 
2,225 
2,525 

•   -2,250 
2,550 
2,850 
3,150 

2,875 
3,175 
3,475 
3,675 

3,500 
3,800 
4,000 
4,200 

6,350 
6,750 
6,950 
7,150 

11,000 
11,200 
11,500 

19,500 
21,500 

26 
24 
21 

28 
27 
20 

25 

29 
25 
22 
20 

27 
23 
20 
18 

27 
24 
22 
20 

20 
19 
18 

18 
16 

4 

1,200 

600 
WO 
1,200 
1,500 

13                       5<j               2 

1,000 

650 

4 

r. 

C                       75               3 

4 

1,000 

900 
1.200 

£75 

5 

I'.SOO 

6 

1,700 

1,200 
1.500 

D                      100               4 

5 

l.OCO 

1,300 

6 

1.700 

7 

1,500 

2,100 
2.500 

E                     250               8 
10 

1,000 

3,250 

12 

2,700 

14 

2,900 

3,500 
3,700 

F                     500             20 

22 

J.OCO 

6,500 

25 

4,000 

5,500 

6,500 

G                   1,000             40 
50 

1,000 

13,000 

under  the  two  plans  (comparing  the  last  column  of  each),  for  any 
school  and  teaching  staff  on  the  list,  will  show  how  much  more  equitable 
the  new  plan  would  be  than  to  continue  on  the  old  basis.  The  new  plan, 
as  worked  out,  is  based  on  the  following  items  and  amounts : 

1.  A  uniform  school  quota  to  all  schools,  regardless  of  size,  of 
$1,000  a  year. 


REPORT   OF   LEGISLATIVE    COMMITTEE   ON    EDUCATION. 

2.  A  teacher  grant,  to  be  given  on  records  of  actual  full-time 

employment,  and  one-half  grants  for  one-half-time  teachers 
or  teachers  employed  for  one-half  the  year,  as  follows : 

(a)  For  the  first  five  teachers  employed,  $300  each  per  year. 

(b)  For  the  second  five  teachers  employed,  $200  each  per 
year. 

(c)  For  all  additional  teachers  employed  up  to  40,  or  a  total 
of    50   teachers    per   school,    $100    each  per  year.     No 
teacher  quota  for  more  than  50  teachers  in  any  school. 

3.  All  remaining  money,  after  setting  aside  the  above  school  and 

teacher  quotas,  to  be  apportioned  to  the  different  high  schools 
on  the  basis  of  their  average  daily  attendance  the  preceding 
year.  This  amount  had  to  be  estimated,  and  on  the  basis  of 
probable  funds  was  calculated  would  be  about  $13.00  per  pupil 
per  year. 

4.  All  state  grants  to  be  duplicated  in  making  the  county  appor- 

tionments before  making  any  distribution  on  average  daily 
attendance. 

Such  an  apportionment  plan  the  Committee  believes  would  be  a 
decided  improvement  over  the  one  now  in  use,  because  it  places  a  pre- 
mium on  the  two  most  desirable  factors  in  good  school  work — teachers 
and  attendance,  recognizes  unit  administration  costs,  and  is  far  more 
equitable  than  the  present  plan.  If  a  still  better  plan  can  be  worked 
out,  well  and  good,  but  if  not,  the  Committee  recommends  that  the 
Legislature  revise  the  present  apportionment  plan  to  make  it  embody 
the  above  principles  and  conditions.  The  Committee  also  can  see  no 
reason  why  the  plan  in  use  for  apportioning  the  county  high  school 
tax  should  not  embody  the  same  principles,  and  accordingly  recommends 
that  it  be  also  revised  to  require  a  duplication  of  the  state  school  and 
teacher  quota  grants  before  apportioning  any  of  the  funds  on  average 
daily  attendance.  As  the  county  high  school  tax  must  not  be  less  than 
$60  per  pupil  in  average  daily  attendance  in  the  high  schools  of  the 
county  the  preceding  year,  instead  of  $30  as  with  the  state  funds,  this 
would  still  leave  a  liberal  fund  remaining  for  apportionment  on  the 
average  daily  attendance  basis. 

Assuming  that  both  state  and  county  apportionments  are  made  on 
the  plan  here  submitted,  each  school  would  receive  from  the  state  and 
county  funds  combined  a  unit  grant  as  a  school  of  $2,000;  a  grant  of 
$600  per  teacher  for  the  first  five,  $400  per  teacher  for  the  next  five, 
and  $200  per  teacher  for  all  additional  teachers  up  to  a  total  of  50; 
with  a  further  grant  for  each  pupil  in  average  daily  attendance  which 
would  vary  with  the  productiveness  of  the  county  high  school  tax,  but 
which  would  probably  range  between  $30  and  $40  per  pupil. 


A  BETTER  EQUALIZATION  OF  FUNDS.  95 

IV.     SUMMARY  OF   FINDINGS  AND   RECOMMENDATIONS. 
In  summary  form  the  findings  and  recommendations  of  the  Committee 
are  as  follows : 

1.  The  prime  purpose  in  educational  administration  is  to  spend  the 
money  at  hand  in  the  most  intelligent  manner  possible. 

2.  Perhaps  a  million  dollars  a  year  could  be  saved  by  a  substitution  of 
county-unit  organization  for  the  district  system,  this  sum  to  be  applied 
in  providing  more  and  better  schools. 

3.  The  plans  now  in  use  for  apportioning  both  state  and  county  funds, 
and  both  elementary  and  high  school  funds,  are  in  need  of  revision  to 
provide  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  the  money  and  to  stimulate 
conservative  communities  to  new  educational  activity. 

4.  The  adoption  of  Amendment  16,  greatly  increasing  the  state  aid 
for  education,  practically  necessitates  a  revision  of  both  the  elementary 
and  high  school  apportionment  laws. 

5.  Plans  for  such  revisions  are  given,  and  it  is  recommended  that  the 
present  Legislature  so  revise  both  the  elementary  school  and  the  high 
school  apportionment  laws. 


APPENDIX. 

SUMMARY  OF  NEEDED  LEGISLATION. 

To  put  the  recommendations  of  the  preceding  pages  of  this  Report 
into  effect  the  following  legislation  will  be  needed : 

I.     CONSTITUTIONAL  AMENDMENTS. 

1.  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction ;  abolition  of  the  office. 
A-rewording  of  article  IX,  section  2  of  the  state  Constitution,  as  out- 
lined on  page  24. 

2.  County    Superintendent    of    Schools;    change    from    election    to 
appointment  by  a  county  board  of  education.    A  rewording  of  article 
IX,  section  3,  of  the  State  Constitution,  as  outlined  on  page  51. 

II.     NEW    LAWS,    OR    REVISION    OF    EXISTING    LAWS. 

1.  A  County-Unit  Law,  as  described  on  pages  44-50. 

2.  A  law  for  the  gradual  expansion  of  the  Normal  Schools  of  the 
state  into  Teachers'  Colleges,  under  the  control  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education,  as  described  on  pages  59-63. 

3.  A  revision  of  the  teachers'  certification  laws,   as  indicated  on 
pages  64-65.- 

4.  Revision   of  the  Junior   College   Law    (section    1750&,   Political 
Code),  to  embody  the  suggestions  contained  on  pages  79-81. 

5.  Revision  of  the  Apportionment  Law  (sections  1532  and  1858  of 
the   Political   Code)    for   elementary   school   funds,    as   suggested   on 
pages  89-90. 

6.  Revision  of  the  Apportionment  Law   (sections  1760-1764  of  the 
Political  Code)  for  high  school  funds,  as  t>.  _  ;Qsted  on  pages  93-94. 

7.  Amendment  of  section  1859  of  the  Political  Code,  as  recommended 
on  page  90,  to  change  the  minimum  term  of  school  from  six  to  eight 
months. 


7769    121    «M 


14  1951 


a  4 


11  1986 


VCK  ANNEX 


5rn-2,'31 


f 


A     000  269  249     9 


